Book 2-Ninjago: Legend Undone
by CrystalliaWriting
Summary: "Seven blessed, seven cursed, destined to be through strife. Through sacrifice was born the Crown of Life. Through despair a kingdom was broken and cursed. Through hope a demon was sealed and thrived did the first. Seven of purity and seven of sin will behold the sacred place. Will the Knights prevail once more or will they fall from grace?"
1. 1:Wanderer

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Hageman Bros characters, etc,. I own my own content here in this story and on my tumblr.**

 **STOP!**

 **Hold it a sec. So you're here to read a story, and that's great. Reading's awesome. And you like Ninjago. Even better. I like you already! However this story is a second book in a series. To get to the point…GO BACK. If you haven't read my first book,** _ **Ninjago: Legend Reborn**_ **all the way through to the last chapter, then go back now before it's too late! Hurry! Don't spoil yourself of the twists and turns I provided in the last book and this book! Save yourself!**

 **If what I just said doesn't apply to you, then…**

 **CONGRATULATIONS!**

 **You've made it to the sequel that's been coming for a long time, now here it is! Thank you all so much for waiting and being patient with me. I also want to to give a big shoutout to all my followers, all those who favorited my story or put it on alert, couldn't have made it this far without your support. Also the full version of the cover title is on my tumblr, CrystalliaWrtiting, so go there if you want a good look at all the characters! Now, without further ado, Ninjago fans, I present you with the story you've all been eager to read…**

 **Ninjago: Legend Undone!**

" _ **I don't know what my path is yet. I'm just walking on it."**_ **Olivia Newton-John**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Wanderer**

Maria rubbed the sleep from her eyes and let out a warm, throaty yawn. She laid aching in her bed and dark room, the night air chilling her bare arms that was exposed from the tank top she wore. Smacking her dry lips, she stretched out of bed and shuffled out of her bedroom. Hunger…that was the sole thing her mind could clearly focus on as she walked through the quiet halls and into the kitchen. Food would make her feel better.

She caught glances of her reflection as she passed by windows tinted by the midnight sky. A dried drool stain ran down from the corner of her mouth to her collarbone. Her light brown curls were a frizzy untamed mess that framed her tired face's bone structure. The grey pajama pants were wrinkled from tossing and turning in her sleep. She mentally thanked that she was the only one awake.

The young girl clung to the fridge as a support upon reaching it, struggling to grip the curving handle. Maria yanked the door open and squinted at her choices through the fluorescent yellow light. There wasn't much to pick from between a loaf of molding bread and a nearly melted ice cream cake. Weighing the two options, she pulled out the dripping dessert, removed its plastic cover and dug away at it with her hands. She caught a bit of cold with each bite she shoved into her mouth, but it wasn't like she couldn't feel it…or taste the soggy, sweet layers of her late night snack, for that matter.

With the white cream dripping down her forearms and sticking crumbs to her skin, she turned to wash off in the sink. Almost instantly after taking that first step did she feel the cold liquid slip across her foot just before she fell on her right arm. Pain erupted in her body as Maria's scream reverberated across the room. Fully waking up from her earlier drowsiness, she held her shoulder, taking note of the unusual roughness of her skin. Confused, she looked down and found it bandaged up with a surgical bandage.

It dripped red from a huge stain that grew in size and hue.

"B…blood?" her first words were. "I'm…I'm bleeding? How can I-?"

" _All hail the King."_

She quickly turned around, ready to fight the owner of the voice. "Who said that? Show yourself!"

" _I know you're not Seraphina. I know that now."_

"I'm warning you! Come out and I might go easy on you!" She held her head in pain as images and sounds flashed violently through. It all felt familiar and distant but she could see it so closely. Ignoring her visions yet succumbing to the fear, she quickly escaped the area and ran back to the safety of her room.

" _You're not Seraphina."_

"Shut up!" Her body felt weak and too heavy for her to carry, let alone run. Yet she sprinted relentlessly with a bit of her strength. The rest was to scream her lungs out at the constant echoing of the voice. "Just shut up!"

" _You're not Seraphina. I know."_

"Please, just stop!" Maria nearly slipped and fell a second time had she not caught herself on her room's door. She fumbled with the door handle and flung herself to her tossed messenger bag on the other side of the room. Rummaging through its leather pockets for her weapon, she heard a slow _clop_ sound approach her. "Not now," she prayed, "I need to defend myself. Where are my neko-te?"

A flash of silver passed by her eyes as it fell down past her face and made its way to her lap. Her neko-te were tied together and fell perfectly. Lodged on their blade claws was a large, curved horn that looked as it had been forcefully ripped of from its owner's head.

She froze and made no attempt to break free as she was lifted off the ground by her throat in a tight grip. Tears dripped down her cheeks and quivering lip as it all came back to her in the moment. Maria knew this grip, she knew the hand that began to choke her. Of course it was bittersweet relief to see her attacker revealed as he turned her to lock eyes with his own green demonic pair.

" _You're her baby girl_ ," Goryō grinned. His claws dug into her neck as there was a crisp _snap_ and plunged her down into darkness.

* * *

The Pink Ninja shot herself up and panted in a cold sweat. Her eyes searched frantically around her surroundings and any approaching enemies.

But there were none.

It was only herself in her bed as daylight began to break through her window. A wave of relief fell over her as she laid back down with a long sigh. It was a dream. A realistic dream based off true events that happened not long ago. Maria could close her eyes and see herself catching a glance at Onryō rising from the dark depths of his prison; his stare with those horrible yellow eyes burned in the back of her mind. It really happened…but everything after was just a blur. Had she passed out from exhaustion or was she knocked out by someone? She didn't know anymore.

Rising back to get out of bed, she had finally noticed her injured arm felt heavier and warm. Maria looked down and saw a sleeping Lloyd hugging her arm protectively. The warm breath from his heavy snores disgusted her at first until she took note of his own bandaged wound over his forehead and ripped gi. She sighed as flashbacks from Goryō's attack resurfaced; Lloyd had gotten hurt for her sake and had exhausted himself. He had risked his life and more just to ensure she would be safe and not release Onryō. But they failed, so what good was it now to rest after a monster had been brought back into the world?

With a bit of guilt, she gently shook him awake. "Hey, wake up sleepyhead."

He let out a groan before yawning and stretching awake. "Maria!" Lloyd's eyes shot wide open with concern. His sudden shift in volume had her taken aback. "You're-well I mean," he shyly said. "So, how do you feel, bud?"

"Tired, confused, and I guess not much else."

"At least you're awake. The others are gonna be happy to see you're ok." Again, he backed up and displayed a shy demeanor unusual for him. "I mean you _look_ ok, but if you don't _feel_ ok, then that's something completely different we can talk about. If you're up to it, that is."

"Are you ok?" she asked. "You're more beaten up than I am."

He shrugged it off. "I've been through way worse than this. Trust me, if I wasn't feeling ok, I'd be in bed resting until I was. Right now, my biggest concern is you. You went through a lot."

Maria took a moment before answering, yet she kept a steady tone. "Lloyd, what happened to me?"

His face became stern as he looked her straight in the eye. He cleared his throat before he replied. "Maria," he took her hand in comfort, "you've been passed out for a couple of days. We've been waiting for you to wake up and you finally did. After all we went through back on Goryō's ship, you finally woke up. It's a miracle."

* * *

 _ **Three days ago…**_

Lloyd's head pounded as he was knocked down to the hardwood floor. As he laid in pain, the shimmering of dark ice crystals flashed as a warning above him before a thick layer of the element covered the skylight where Goryō had fled. He held his head as he sat up to further assess the situation. Maria was kidnapped and Onryō was being released. He was slightly injured and his friends were trapped…trapped?

"Uh, a little help here?" Jay interrupted. The Blue Ninja and the remaining team members stared blankly at him from the dark crystal that encased them to a helpless state. "Kinda in a hurry, Lloyd."

"Right, sorry." The Green Ninja quickly shot a beam of energy at the core of crystal, careful not to accidentally injure any of his friends. As cracks began to disperse through the rock, the others began squirming free, releasing their limbs gradually. With a final blast, the crystal exploded into millions of pieces, his friends unharmed from the outburst of shards.

"Lloyd, you've exasperated your wounds," Zane said as he reached out and gently touched his temple, making him wince in pain. "You should rest. We can save her from Goryō."

"No, you can't," he snapped back. "Look, it's gonna take all of us to take him down so we can grab her and get the heck out of here."

Kai quickly intervened the conversation. "But you're hurt, making you the weakest link. We go after Maria, he'll go after you. What then?"

"It won't get to that point if we-"

A _clap_ of thunder echoed its way into the ship's bridge, shaking them and sending a chill in the air that made their hair stand. The view from the curved windows grew dark and lifeless as clouds merged to form a single, ebony cloud that blocked their view. A distant, inhuman roar sounded off, prompting Lloyd to take action as he launched an energy orb at the blocked skylight. He covered his eyes as the shards rained down on him. As they clattered to the ground, he used his airjitzu to send him upward and onto the roof.

Quietly, he landed on the stone tile roof and stayed low at the sight of Goryō offering Maria a glance at the distance. Rising from the dark depths emerged a monstrous, muscular shadow being with wild hair that whipped in the storm's rising wind. He was bigger than any demon they had ever encountered, and looked powerful enough to take down an larger opponent with its blood red claws. Its body was covered in veins that pulsed with raw, glowing power from the core of its chest to the horns.

But beyond its terrifying appearance was its eyes. They were clearly locked with Maria's, yet their ominous yellow hue made Lloyd freeze in his place. The absence of pupils, curvature and glow was unlike any enemy they had faced. It was worst than the Great Devourer, the Preeminent, even his own father's when he had fought him long ago.

They were the eyes of someone the Ninja had hoped to never face; they were the glowing eyes of the Demon King, Onryō.

Lloyd quietly backed down as he tried to formulate a plan to-

"Hey, Lloyd is the coast clea- _HOLY HECK! WHAT IS THAT!?"_

The Green Ninja stopped, mortified at the scream from Jay and the quick turn of Goryō's head. The demon flared his nostrils and nose ring before offering a wicked grin. With a gulp, he Lloyd quickly turned back to his fear stricken team and prepared to run off. "Guys, get moving! We need to-"

" _That's_ Onryō?!" Cole ignored him as he pointed at the shadow in the distance. "He's huge!"

"How are we supposed to fight that? He's bigger than a mountain!" Kai exclaimed.

"Guys!" he shouted to regain their attention. As they focused back on him, he gestured to the approaching demon. "We kinda got a problem on our hands."

Goryō scoffed from behind him, making Lloyd face him. "This is not a problem, this is the end for you. All of you." Before they could react, he held up an unconscious Maria to their faces, pale and panting from exhaustion. "Hand over the gems and she won't become a sacrifice for Onryō's empty stomach."

Nya stepped protectively in front of Kai and Jay. "Are you nuts? We're not going to trust you. The second we give you the gems, you'd kill us. Besides, we don't even have all the gems and we're the only ones that can find them."

"Is that what you think?" Goryō arched his brow. "You filthy humans think you have privileges, that you're special and are the only ones who can possess the gems? How pathetic."

"I fail to see how we are pathetic in this situation," Zane spoke up. "We are not the ones hiding behind a helpless girl for defense."

Irritation rising in his eyes, Goryō stomped his hoof on the roof, causing a vibration to spread out. Thorns bigger than their whole bodies shot out and precisely aimed themselves at the Ninja's necks. They found themselves back to back with each other, unable to find a gap to slip out and escape. The Ninja dared not to breathe heavily, let alone move by the slightest bit. "I'm going to ask you one last time," the demon whispered as he leaned into their little circle, "give me the gems before I take them off by force."

With their options running out, only one idea came into the young leader's head. It wasn't the smartest or safest he admitted, but it was the only one that could get Maria away from here. Lloyd locked eyes with Goryō and replied without hesitation. "You couldn't if you even tried, only we can take them off."

His eyes narrowed down at him. "You lie, boy."

"Lloyd, what are you doing?" Cole asked in a hushed voice. "Are you trying to get killed?"

"I wouldn't lie," Lloyd continued, ignoring his friends. "It's the truth; only the wielder of their respective gems can take them on and off. No other force could even if they tried with all their might. Seraphina told me herself when I first got this gem at age six. That's what I remembered not long ago. She wouldn't lie to me."

Goryō let out a chuckle. "I believe you more than I believe this little sneak." He dropped Maria onto the roof tiles, her limp body nearly sliding off. "She tried to save herself, but I saw through her lies. Never mind her now," he said just before snatching Lloyd up by his throat.

"Put him down!" Kai shouted.

The circle tightened before any of the Ninja had a chance to escape or counter. Goryō tightened his grip to the point where Lloyd could feel his head getting ready to pop and deflate. "I can't take the gem _off_ your body, but I can simply take it if there's no body."

"Now you're just talking crazy!" Lloyd choked out. His head felt ready to explode with the increasing strength from his giant hand around his neck.

"No, I'm only thinking a little, how you humans say, 'out of the box.'"

"Get your filthy hands off him!" a raspy voice cried out as a shadowy figure tackled Goryō down, allowing Lloyd to escape and slide over to Maria's side. Jorōgumo struggled to pin him down and subdue him. He kicked her away with his hooves and began to stomp over to Lloyd. His fist was set aflame with blue green fire that he prepared to strike with. As he raised his fist high above the two Ninja, Jorōgumo quickly jumped up and bit her fang into his neck.

His green eyes rolled to the back of his head as his balance became unstable. Goryō wobbled back and forth before falling face down unconscious. Jorōgumo finally released her bite and got up, quickly turning to the thorn circle that trapped the other Ninja. She grabbed ahold of the three closest thorns and uprooted them from the roof, allowing them to escape out the narrow path. "All of you, leave this place," she commanded them.

"What about Goryō?" Cole asked. "What'd you even do to him anyway? He's out cold."

"Just some venom I have, but it won't hold him for long with the strength he has now. All of you now, leave. I will handle Onryō and this traitor."

They quickly gathered themselves and summoned their dragons. One by one, they flew off into the night sky away from the _Silent Plague._ Lloyd was the last to takeoff as he carefully picked up Maria in his arms. Before summoning his own dragon, he turned back to the spider demon. "Hey, Jorōgumo…"

"Look, I don't know what is going to happen now, ok?" she quickly interrupted. "I have a loyalty to King Onryō, but the alliance is important to me, too. I can't decide now where my loyalty stands strongest now, all right?"

With a faint smile, he summoned his energy dragon and carefully got on its back. After he secured himself and Maria, he called over his shoulder, "I was just going to thank you for saving us and me. So…thanks."

His dragon flapped its long wings and took off into the air. It didn't take long for him to catch up with the others as they flew on home. Maria gently groaned in her unconscious state, prompting him to shush her into sleep. His friends looked at him without saying a word; their tired eyes spoke for them as they glanced at him now and then for answer on what would happen next.

He didn't know.

* * *

"…then we called your mom and told her you were sick, we quickly sent out word to Cliona about Onryō's return and she alerted the other Great Elders to be on high alert. Also she gave your mom some charms to put around her house to ward off evil spirits and demons."

"But…?" The Pink Ninja waited for any withheld information her brother might've been keeping.

"Well, you're mom is very emotional after this whole thing," he admitted. "She wouldn't let Cliona in when she mentioned she's a Great Elder and screamed at her to go away after quickly slamming the door in her face. Your mom also called and found out you were in a coma, sorry but she got it out of us. She wanted to talk to you as soon as you woke up.

"But you were half awake last night and made a mess in the kitchen. It wasn't too bad, but it was pretty obvious you were low on energy and needed a bite. I figured it would be up to you to call her when you felt ready."

She sighed realizing that her nightmare was mostly real. She was hungry and struggled to find food, but Goryō didn't come after her and tell her-

" _You're her baby girl."_

'Oh, geez,' she thought to herself. That part was real. _Very_ much real when he whispered that in her ear and stunned her. He couldn't have been lying, could he?

"Hey, bud? You ok?"

Lloyd's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "Oh, yeah. I just need some time to myself before I decide what to do next."

"That's fine," he replied as he got up from her bedside and began to leave. "You take all the time you need, bud." He stopped in the door way and offered her a final look of reassurance before exiting out of her room. "We're here for you, no matter what."

As her door closed shut, she nearly fell face forward to her knees. Those words echoed through her head and mocked her, if they were even true. A million theories ran through and back her mind as she tried to comprehend what exactly he meant. It could've been a bluff to freak her out and lower her guard in that moment. Yet when she tried to think back to how she got the tiny scar under her chin, Maria was left with a dead end at every possibility. It wasn't that she hadn't gotten beaten up before at a young age, but there wasn't a single memory that stuck out to her and could be traced back to how she received her scar.

If what Goryō said was true, that would make her Seraphina's daughter, not her reincarnation. That left only her mom to be possibly reincarnated from a spirit that lived over 4,000 years ago. She shook her head at the idea of her mom being the least bit connected to Seraphina in that way. Maria could always remember her mom being calm, conservative and sometimes getting mad in defense, but she sounded as though she hated Cliona and she hated her fighting demons as a Ninja. She was scared for her life and safety…maybe she even wanted her to come back home and leave her new life behind.

What about Cliona and the other Great Elders? They acted as though she was Seraphina reincarnated and didn't act any different towards her, or maybe she didn't pick up on it. They were friendly but maybe a bit too friendly and welcoming. It could be a ruse to hide the fact they knew something she didn't know about her past, about herself.

Then there was her dad. They were never destined to meet, but her already loved her before she was born as he said in his journal. He fought for her before he even knew for sure she was a girl or boy. People got emotional when he was brought up; neighbors, friends, fellow police officers, and more felt a bit of sorrow that would spread to their face at the mention of his name. No sooner would it turn to disgust when Maria came around, having people question if she really was his daughter. Maybe they were right after all.

The possibilities were endless. One thought lead to another loose end which lead to more questions and potentials. Her trust began wavering in everyone around her until she lost it completely in the most important person in her life.

"What does that make me?" she asked her closed window.

* * *

The waffle maker went off as steam poured out from the thin gap of the twin irons. Zane turned it over and opened up to another fluffy, golden waffle. He gently pricked it with a fork and placed it on top of the pre-made stack he made for the others eagerly waiting for their food. Finally he set the plate down before them, their quick hands grabbing all they could set onto their own plates to drown them in syrup and scarf them down their throats. How they could easily go back into daily routines after something traumatic happened to them amazed Lloyd.

He finally stepped out from the hallway and joined them at the counter. "Glad to see you're all up."

"Morning, Lloyd," Cole said between bites of sticky layers of waffle. "How's the kid?"

"She's awake and just needs some time to comprehend what's going on. I told her all we knew but right now, it's best to give her some space."

"It's nice to hear she's awake," Zane replied as he poured a cupful of thick batter into the maker. He began serving mugs of coffee while continuing to speak. "We received another call from her mother not long ago. Perhaps she will be relieved upon hearing Maria is awake and well."

Nya shook her head in disagreement and wiped her mouth clean of crumbs. "Maybe that's not such a good idea, Zane. Elise sounded really mad this time, we should give them both time to blow off some steam. If they talk too soon, it could get ugly."

"Ugly how?" Jay asked. "She can't do anything to hurt us and she can't take Maria away now that she's technically an adult."

"True, but she's her mom and has full authority over her," Kai pointed out. "Plus, it's deadly to get in the way of an angry mom. If she wants to take her back home, she technically has the right to."

Lloyd groaned and rolled his eyes at the conversation. "Come on, guys, Maria isn't going anywhere. She wants to be here, that's what she continued to choose over and over again after all we've been through. She won't ditch us and there's no way she'll let anything take her away, even if it's her own mother."

"Did she tell you that or are you just assuming?"

"I…" Lloyd choked on his words for a moment. "I just know, ok? I'm not going to question her about it since she still needs time."

"Perhaps a little bit of food will help her relax a bit more," the nindroid suggested as he prepared a separate plate of waffles and a glass of milk. "Whatever choice she makes, we must stand behind her and give her all our support," he said as he walked down the hallway to deliver the food. "It's the best thing we could do as her family."

His parting words left them in silence. It was the truth; if they really cared then they would have to give her their support. On the other hand, the impact of that truth stayed in the pit of their stomachs. The reality was they had no control over what she may or may not choose, and persuading her wouldn't be right.

If Maria stayed, they would support her. The mission would go smoothly and there wouldn't be any complications in defeating the demons. They hadn't necessarily seen it themselves, but they were constantly told her power alone could ultimately defeat the Demon King. It would take some time, but they all felt certain she had the potential to reach that level of power. Then she would just need to control her dragon better and unlock her true potential, maybe learn airjitzu to further her skill set.

If she left…they would support her, no matter how much it may affect them.

"But I don't want her to leave!" Cole suddenly exclaimed. The Ninja quickly gave him looks at his sudden outburst. "Hey, we're all thinking it," he quickly explained. "We can't have her leave the team now that we've got a crazy, giant Demon King on the loose. Cliona told us not to take chances."

"Speaking of which, isn't weird how Cliona didn't ask more on how Maria was when we told her she was knocked out?" Kai asked. "You think she'd be concerned about the reincarnation of her friend dying again."

Jay shuddered at his words. "Geez, dude, you make it sound so dark. Besides, she probably had million things on her mind once we told her Onryō was back."

"And that's our main mission: defeat Onryō once and for all," Lloyd deemed. "We've been reincarnated ourselves for the sole purpose of supporting Maria in destroying him, that much we know. What needs to happen now is that we focus all our energy into defeating him so this doesn't become some continuous cycle that happens for thousand of years. Agreed?"

"Agreed," his friends replied.

"What are we agreeing on?" Zane asked as he entered back into the kitchen with the untouched breakfast in his hands.

"We're gonna focus on defeating Onryō over anything else," Nya summarized before taking a sip of coffee. She took note of the food and gestured at it. "Did Maria not like her breakfast?"

Zane set it down and began to resume cooking. Over his shoulder, he casually answered, "I won't know for a while, she ran away."

Simultaneously, the Ninja's eyes widened and jaws dropped before shouting, " _What?!"_

Zane calmly turned back to their stunned faces and pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket. "She left a note and her gi all folded up on her bed. It explains that she's leaving for the city to get some air and maybe find some answers. The way she worded it makes her sound very depressed and confused about certain things going on in her life."

"Well, we gotta go out and find her!" Kai quickly said. "We need to spread out and cover all areas of the city, immediately!" The Ninja quickly cleaned up their mess and prepared to take off. In the chaos of them running around, Zane stood perfectly still and watched them.

"Perhaps we shouldn't try to find her just yet," the nindroid calmly said. "She needs space, isn't that what we all kept saying?"

"Yeah, but we meant 'space' as in ' carefully thinking about what topics we may talk about,'" Jay explained. "Not 'space' as in, 'I'm just gonna pack up my bags and leave you guys because I'm moody!' We have to go after her!"

"I'm with Jay," Cole agreed. "It's our job to protect her and keep her safe."

"No," the Green Ninja said. His words stopped them in their tracks. They were all in shock as he just stood in place.

Kai let out a nervous chuckle as he approached the young Ninja. "Lloyd, could repeat that? I thought I heard you say we shouldn't go after the only person who can defeat Onryō and is now getting herself lost in the city."

"I did," he curtly replied. He let out a sigh before continuing on. "I'm starting to get a bad of habit of overprotecting her. Heck, we all have, so we need to stop while we can. I need to have faith in her and stop breathing down her neck, telling her what to do, what not to do.

"That's all I wanted sometimes when I was training for my own destiny," he said as he raised his head. "It's her turn now. We'll look later, but for now, let's let her find her own way without us guiding her. Let's let her live her life."

* * *

"This was a terrible idea," Maria muttered to herself as she walked down the streets of the city in her old outfit with only a messenger bag to defend herself with. Every now and then a glare or just a look would be thrown her way, making her hang head low and hug herself in comfort. Though she had been trained and was now equipped with powers, locking eyes with strangers that looked like creeps or gang members still frightened her.

It was ridiculous how she could be afraid of regular people after dealing with demons and monsters. Maybe it wasn't so ridiculous as she thought. Maybe deep down it was because she knew firsthand that people we're just as bad as a real monster, if not more. They could hurt you just as much and cause the same amount of pain. That's probably why she regretted wearing her pink shirt with the hot chocolate stain on it. She looked like a street urchin.

Ok, so she was over exaggerating the situation a bit. The whole setting freaked her out but nothing had happened to her yet. She took a breath to calm herself and began to stand as she walked down the street. She was a Ninja and if anyone came after her, she would be strong. She was a strong and confident young woman; she could handle anything.

A hooded figure walked out from the alleyway with a smug grin on his face. "Hey, baby," the man said as he pulled back his hood to reveal his face. His suspicious appearance made Maria let out yelp in surprise, to which he returned a dark chuckle. "What's a cutie like you doing in a place like this?" He smiled with two rows of rotten yellow teeth that leaned into her space.

She staggered a bit before regaining her composure and turned to walk away, ignoring him completely. His footsteps followed closely behind her, urging her to pick up her pace. Her heart pounded in rhythm with their shoes against the pavement, growing in volume. From her sides came two separate beats that pounded at a faster pace. With imminent danger at hand, she took off and ran straight forward, regardless that she didn't know where she was headed.

"Slow down, babe!"

"We just wanna have a little fun!"

"Hey, cutie, come here!"

Their yells continually pursued her as she ran down the sidewalk and made a quick turn near a tea shop. She stopped and observed her hiding places: a couple of garbage can, a large waste bin and a few empty tea boxes. With time running out, she took her chances and carefully crawled into the waste bin. To her benefit, all the bags inside didn't have holes and smelled only a little rotten. Quietly, she closed the huge lid and gently laid down on the bags.

She heard muffled voices approach the outside of her hiding spot, making her cover her mouth to soften her breathing sounds. Maria closed her eyes and prayed that they wouldn't find her. It was pathetic of her to be this way, but she couldn't help it. Never in a million years did she think a situation like _this_ would happen to _her._ But this wasn't Tranquilville and she hadn't seen that much of the city when she first came here. It was a complete turn of events that changed her original plans, even then she hadn't seen that much of the city.

This was another side of New Ninjago City she'd never dream…never _wanted_ to experience.

Now she was here with nowhere to go after up and leaving the friends who took her in. She was scared and couldn't concentrate on what to do if those guys found her, even when she had more than enough power to overwhelm them. If she couldn't handle this, what was she?

"…not here," a distant rough voice said. It trailed off along with a couple of footsteps behind it. Sensing an opportunity, Maria cautiously peeked out the from the lid and looked around for her attackers. When she noticed they had left, she slowly opened the lid and climbed out. With a sigh of relief she sat down and relaxed.

"Got her!" A pair of hands clamped around her mouth and neck, muffling her screams. Two other creepy men appeared in front of her, laughing raucously at their plan working. "I told you guys it would work," the leader said from behind her, almost whispering it in her ear with his disgusting breath.

"What're we gonna do now, boss?" one thug asked. His stare made her frantically try to pry the wicked hands subduing her, but she found no strength in her grip. "I haven't seen her around before. Bet she's a lot of fun."

The other thug eagerly shot his hand up. "I call first dibs!"

"Hey, I found her!" The leader possessively moved his hand from her neck to her curl resting over her shoulder. "I say that _I_ get to go first with this little rosebud."

'Rosebud…?' Maria thought in that brief second. 'Like…bud?' Lloyd's voice rang with hers on that word. Bud, that's what he called her often; maybe more often than her own name as of recent. That's also how she knew they really were like brother and sister, the nickname he gave her was something only he called her. Did this man think that he could call her that because he thought he owned her?

"No," she growled under her breath. With her hands becoming firm, she grabbed the sides of his head and lifted him above her head. The other thugs stood in shock as she held their friend up high. As she slammed him head down into the concrete, she yelled ferociously, "You do not own me, you piece of trash!"

His was knocked unconscious and stayed limp on the ground. Maria quickly got into a fighting stance, ready for their next attack. His friends picked him up, revealing a new wound on his forehead. His mouth was opened a bit, enough to reveal he had lost some teeth. The two thugs went pale at his condition, shaking in fear the same would be done to them. Without even looking at Maria again, they picked up their friend and dragged him off, shouting, "This chick's a monster!"

"Monster?" The rush of anger she felt had vanished, confusion and sadness replacing it in her mind. It wasn't like freak, but it still had hurt. Maybe that's what she was. Maybe all this time she was a monster.

"Nice work, dearie," a weak, old voice commented from behind her. She turned back to see an old lady with straw hat covering her from the late morning sun. She held a teapot and matching cup in her hands that she offered to her. "I heard a ruckus outside my shop and was afraid I'd have to get tough, but I'm glad you took care of it."

"Thanks, but I kinda caused the ruckus," Maria replied while taking the cup. "They were trying to attack me and I led them here. I shouldn't even be here, but I am. I'm…I'm so stupid!"

"Now, child, be calm." The old lady placed a kind hand and her shoulder and ushered her to the front door of her shop. "How about I fix you up with some tea and you explain everything to me?"

Maria pulled back from the kind gesture. "I couldn't do that. It's my burden, I can't just dump it on you."

The old lady smiled and shook her head. "Child, if I didn't want to hear your story, I wouldn't have offered to. Besides, I think having a fresh pair of ears listen to you would help you."

"I suppose." The Pink Ninja continued on to follow behind her inside her shop. "I'm Maria, by the way. Maria Psyche."

"A pleasure," the woman said before turning back to face her. "You may call me Mistaké."

* * *

Maria kept quite and stared down at her lemon-honey tea cup. Mistaké had gone in the back supposedly preparing a 'special mix' in a to go bag for her, leaving Maria in the store's front at a small table. Her kindness was unbelievable, yet she had guiltily kept doubts in the back of her mind that it was a façade. Maybe it was all too good to be true. A lot of things had been like that lately. She broke out of her thoughts as Mistaké came back with a brown paper bag, decorated lightly with golden designs.

"This should help you with your problem," she said as she set it down on the table. As Maria went to reach for it, she smacked her hand away. "Not yet!" she scolded. "First, we need to address your problem, child."

"Sorry, I guess I'm too quick to act," she apologized.

"Yes, go on."

"Well, I went through something and then I kinda…learned something about me that might be true. But I don't want it to be true, because then everything changes drastically for me. So I acted on impulse and my friends are probably worried sick. Also, I'm kinda stronger than before which terrifies me."

"Yeah, I bet your big brother Lloyd Garmadon is concerned about you."

Maria choked on her tea and coughed it up. "I'm sorry, but what?" she asked while wiping her mouth with her sleeve. "I never mentioned-"

Mistaké chuckled lightly at her. "I'm a good friend of him and the other Ninja, along with your Sensei. I know things, young Maria. Maybe you could spare me the vagueness and give me the straight story."

"Uh, sure." She took a deep breath in and released it slowly. "A villain kidnapped my mom and tormented me and my friends. When he and I were alone in combat, he said he gave me a scar on my chin and that I-"

Maria began to quiver, her voice breaking as she continued on. She felt the emotions she bottled up resurfacing in a wave overwhelming her. "That I should've been dead for a long time, and that my mom is a Spirit Queen that I thought I was reincarnated from. Now I question everything around me: my friends, my childhood, my mother and late father, and myself. I don't know who or what I am anymore. I…I'm lost."

Before any tears spilled out from her eyes, she felt a pair of arms embrace her in a warm hug. "Come now, child," Mistaké soothed. "You're not the only one who feels that way at some point in their life. People all over find themselves asking what they are and feel lost. But you're not lost even though you wander around; you just need a little guidance."

She released from the hug and offered the bag to her. "This will help you only a portion of the way. To find your way completely will all be up to you. I made this out of Traveler's Tea and a little something else. I'd like to call this brew, the Wanderer's Tea, Curiositea."

"Cute name," Maria chuckled while gratefully taking the bag. "So how do I brew it?" Mistaké only gave her a deadpanned look. "Um, am I supposed to _eat_ this?"

Mistaké groaned and put her hand on her face. "No, you open the bag and it will do the rest. Do yourself a favor a take a break from cocoa. Try tea every now and then."

"Ok, but should I open it now?"

"Are you ready to face whatever may come from this point forward?"

Maria stared at the bag, her hands slowly lifting up the folded flap. Everything that had happened was for a reason she didn't know about anymore, but she had to find out. Whatever may come, from now on, for sure, she had to be strong. There was no turning back now. Not when something was waiting to be found by her. Maybe _someone_ needed to be found in order to get her wish. To find out what she was.

"I'm ready to face it." She pulled the flap open with the utmost certainty. "I'm ready to face my past and myself."

Golden tea leaves spiraled out of the bag and around her. Gold dust that flew off from them turned to a pale blue as something grew inside her. The leaves spun around faster as her body got lighter. She felt herself flying off the ground and into the sparkling blue dust. Everything became bright and distant around her. The last thing she saw was Mistaké smiling a mysterious yet wise smile as she blacked out.

* * *

 **And cut! Thanks for reading! Don't worry, we'll be back soon!**

 **Next time on Ninjago: Legend Undone…**

 **Requiem For A Past Life**

 **Until then, God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.**


	2. 2:Requiem For A Past Life

**Disclaimer: I don't own Ninjago, only the content you don't recognize from the Ninjago universe. Nuff said.**

 **Hey, guys! I'm so excited to present you with chapter two. Also, I'm happy that my first book is getting more views by others so they can ready themselves for this sequel. :) Now sit back and relax for chapter 2!**

" _ **Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart."**_ **Haruki** **Murakami**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Requiem For A Past Life**

It was hot…and getting loud. Maria inhaled and nearly choked on what tasted like smoke. She panted and tried to open her eyes but saw black everywhere she looked. The roaring crackle of flames made their way to her ears, popping away in tune to what sounded like a metallic clang. Quickly, she covered her ears and tried to stand on her weak legs. Light broke through from the darkened view and gave her a chance to see where she now stood.

Maria stood in a curved marble staircase reflecting golden light that danced around wildly. The threatening glow grew dim as a shadow of a figure engulfed it with its approaching presence. It was mainly formless but had a sharpness towards the head that made the hair stand on her neck. With each passing second it became more clear that the figure resembled a sort of beast, yet at the same time humanoid in stature.

"Goryō," she said in realization, but in a very weak and hoarse voice. She opened her mouth to try and say more; Maria had lost her voice without knowing what caused it to be so weak. 'Why can't I say anything?' she thought to herself. 'What's going on?'

" _Where are you?"_ His silky smooth voice cut through the flames fierce roars, the pounding of the metal slowly joining in with the beat of his hoof steps. _"Come out and play, little one. It's only your oldest and dearest friend."_

'Run,' she told her mind. However her legs heard 'collapse,' and she did just that right then and there. Maria's legs wouldn't listen to her inner pleas, leaving her on the bottom steps frozen and at the mercy of Goryō's coming presence. Her head locked upward to the remainder of the curved steps as the piercing light turned blue-green in color. Not even her trembling eyes blinked for a split second as he emerged, haunting her once again.

His clawed hand rested against smooth wall while the other grasped a large, metal club that dragged against the steps. His eyes wandered before locking with hers. A grin spread across his face at the sight of the helpless state she was in. He leaned forward, ready to grab her as he whispered, " _I found you, little princess."_

"S-s-stay away," Maria said clearly in a quivering voice. She closed her eyes and braced herself for the attack. "Stay away!"

"Brrawwr?" a quiet voice purred. She felt the sticky sensation of saliva run across her cheek, disgusting her throughly as she jumped back and tried to wipe it off. As she did, her eyes opened and realized she was in a forest grove.

"What the…where am I?" She carefully examined the tall trees that nearly touched the sky and scented air wafting from the flowers. It wasn't the grove back home, but it had a sense of familiarity to it. She let out a sigh of relief but grew confused as she recalled the earlier scene. "Was I dreaming again? And why is Goryō haunting me? I should be having nightmares of Onryō."

It was a strange thought to be wishing that someone else haunted her mind. Perhaps she believed it was because she had prepared to face with this demon that was said to be predestined to fight her. But that was a lie, it had to be if she wasn't really reincarnated. It was all a lie, and maybe she wasn't as capable of handling this _situation_ she was in as she thought she did. Maybe she was only fooling herself.

Shaking the thought, she brushed the dirt off her clothes and remembered her goal as she began brushing away tea leaves from her shirt. That old woman who comforted her, Mistaké, led her here with the Curiositea. _"This will help you only a portion of the way."_ her words rang in the back of her head.

"So I have to find the rest on my own. Everything I want an answer to is something I need to do on my own." She stood tall and faced forward. If this is where the tea decided to send her, then there was a good reason, one she needed to find out. "Alright, if this is where it begins, then I'll go. Nothing is going to hold me back!"

"Brrrawwr?" The same purring voice startled her enough to make her scream and duck for cover. Maria cautiously turned to the source and readied to face the beast. She made eye contact with its red eyes…and immediately fawned at the sight of the adorable otter. Well, it wasn't exactly an otter but it wasn't _not_ an otter.

It was roughly the size of a full grown wolf and had a blue spotted pattern across its earth green fur. A blue streaked mane ran from its nose and trailed down its back to its thick brush of a tail. Even its eyes, that at first glance looked menacing due to the color, were actually quite large and bright. As it sat before her, it wagged its tail like an ecstatic puppy and panted happily as it reached up to lick her cheek once more.

Maria, laughing this time realizing it was the one that woke her up from her earlier nightmare, gave the wolf otter a pat on its soft head. "So you're the one that licked me earlier. And here I thought it was some demon tasting me. What're you doing here anyway, you cutie?"

As if it understood completely, it ran to a nearby bush and stuck its head in briefly. It dragged out her brown messenger bag by the strap and laid it by her feet, replying with a short, " _Brawwr!"_

"My bag!" she exclaimed as she opened it up and examined the contents. "I guess it flew off as I landed here. At least my book is still in it." She pulled out the leather novel and began flipping through the yellowed pages until she reached the section labeled _Urban Legend Spirits._ The first page she opened up to was labeled _Furī_ and had a drawing that was an exact match to the creature before her. "Furī…is that what you are?"

"F-Furī!" it happily chirped in its squeaky yet quirky kind of voice that made her fawn over it once more. "B-B-Blue…good boy!" He rested a paw on her knee and gave a short wag of his tail. F-f-fetched!"

As she pulled him in to give him a scratch behind his ears, she chuckled, "Ok, so your name is Blue, but what do you mean, 'fetched'?" Maria pushed him back a little to allow herself to stand. "It's nice to meet you, Blue, but I have to go now. I'm not exactly sure where, but I just have to walk and maybe I'll find where I need to go."

As she began to walk away from the furī, the tea leaves she previously brushed off suddenly swirled around her face and blowed through her hair by an unforeseen wind. They shimmered with a faint blue dust as they did before, but floated more gently before landing on Blue. He paid little attention to the tea leaves sticking to his fur; instead, he happily wagged his tail once more as Maria faced his way again.

"The leaves will help me partway," she told herself. "Blue, I think they led me here to you for a reason. Maybe you're the answer to some of my questions about Onryō and my mom and dad and-!" Maria stopped her burst of energy and sighed. "Who am I kidding? Even though you're a spirit animal, no offense, you're still just an animal with no clue what I'm going through."

"Brawwr?" Blue cooed sadly, his ears flattened against his skull. He slowly walked up to her, rubbing his head against her stomach comfortingly. "P…" He started to say once more. "P…Peter."

The young Ninja's heart stopped at the sound of that name. She didn't mention any of the former Knights of Life to Blue, yet he knew the name of one, Peter. Maria kneeled down to his eye level and asked the furī, "You knew Peter?"

"Peter…Master. Master…play fetch," he replied. Blue took a paw and gently placed it on her own hand and looked at her deeply with his ruby eyes. "Fetched."

"Blue," she whispered as she held his paw, slowly understanding what he meant. If he was instructed and trained to find her, he could find other things if given an order. "Listen to me, you fetched me. Now, fetch Seraphina, ok?" She pulled out her book and flipped towards the dogeared page of her moth-her _relative_ and showed it to Blue. "Fetch Seraphina, Blue. Fetch the Spirit Queen!"

Blue sniffed the pages and carefully looked at the drawing for a good minute or two before sniffing the ground. He stuck his nose close to the earth and wandered around until he found a scent and howled with his head held high. He quickly ran off into the bushes with Maria on his heels, ready to fetch Seraphina.

* * *

"All I'm saying is that we're in the city, but we're not looking for her when she's clearly here!" Jay complained once more. "Care to explain your logic, Lloyd?"

The Ninja had quickly changed to their civilian clothes at the request of their young leader as they thought they were finally trying to search for Maria. However, they were completely wrong as he led them down the city streets for a, as he said, "walk to clear their minds."

"It's simple, the fresh air is relaxing and can be beneficial to us," the Green Ninja calmly replied. "I'm sure its doing the same thing for Maria while she's out and about."

"Ok, back up, kid," Kai said as he got in front of him, stopping the group from going any further. "One, we live in the city and we all know the air is not all that great most of the time. Two, you're scaring us all with this 'laid back, chill' attitude. Three, the Lloyd I know would be determined to find his sister, no matter what and wouldn't rest until she was safe and sound."

"I'm with Kai," Nya seconded. "Lloyd, it's obvious you two care a lot about the other. So what's with this act?"

Lloyd shrugged it off with a grin on his face. "Don't know what you're talking about. I just feel good and a little thirsty, but I heard about a great tea shop up ahead." Without a care, he walked ahead of the group and continued down to the aforementioned shop.

As the group stood there dumbfounded, Cole spoke with great concern. "Guys, I think we broke him."

"I don't understand, Lloyd is healing well." Zane commented. "The damage to his head is actually quite minimal and not as bad as we previously thought."

"Says you," Jay shot back. "But that's not what Cole meant…well, kinda. He's acting so calm and collective…it's freaking me out! He's acting like-"

"Sensei Wu," Nya interrupted. "Wu would act so calm like that and have us try to figure out our problems on our own, remember?"

Memories came back to them of their lost teacher doing just that. Wu was always sitting idly by sipping tea whenever they struggled to overcome an obstacle; he was completely gone when they focused on trying to unlock their true potentials. In the end, his wise, and sometimes confusing, words helped them find their way by their own power.

Jay cleared his throat to break the silence that came upon them. "Hate to break the depth of this moment, but I'm confused over here. Why would the runt try to act more like Wu? I'm sorry, but it's just weird, especially since he doesn't have the long, white beard."

"Perhaps, if Lloyd is injured in his mind, then it could be a defensive tactic," Zane suggested. As he received confused looks, the nindroid calmly explained. "Lloyd has lost his father twice, once by his own actions, an uncle, his mom and now, after undergoing a traumatic event, he lost a sister. It's a lot to fully recover from, especially after going through some events prior to us meeting Maria that left an imprint on him.

"To simplify, I believe Lloyd is alike to Maria. Deep down, after undergoing trauma inducing events, they bottle up their true emotions and concerns for our sake. The only outlet they have to release and express these conflicting emotions is with…well, with each other."

Taken aback by Zane's theory, they shared a saddened look. They both were possessed and used for evil purposes, they lost people they loved and had been under pressure from the weight of their roles they probably didn't want in the first place. It was what made them bond and comfort the other, but take one away or threaten to…then they would be alone. There would be no one to dry the others tears over a distant yet frightening memory, no one to hold the other and say, "I'm here."

"Wu kept secrets, too." Nya sadly said. "It was a lot to handle considering what some of them were and how they changed our lives to what we have now. You think Lloyd is like Wu now? Scared and hurting from the weight of the reality?"

"I think so," Cole agreed. "Kid's been through a lot, both of them have. But why can't they open up to us? We've been pulled through the wringer, too."

"We'll try, but he needs space." Kai said while walking moderately fast to catch up with Lloyd, prompting the others to follow. "Let him cool off and maybe we'll talk to him. Maybe he'll-"

He was cut off as he bumped into a rough looking guy, followed closely by his two friends. "Watch where you're walking, you worthless stain!" he angrily spat. While he and his gang didn't notice their real identities, Kai took notice of the supposed leader's bruised jaw and lack of a few yellow teeth. "I don't need to be dealing with you guys," he said as they pushed past the Ninja. "First that annoying pink chick, then kids walking around in our way."

On instinct, Kai grabbed the guy by his shirt collar and pinned him against a nearby building wall. "What did you just say?" he hissed, lighting his fist on fire.

"Hey, man," the guy said, holding his arms in surrender. "I didn't know you and these other guys were the Ninja. I'm sorry, just let me go!"

His friends stood by, keeping their distance from Kai and the other Ninja, who stood on guard. They pleaded along with their leader. "We don't think you're worthless!"

"Or stains! You guys are really clean!"

"Then what did you mean by 'annoying pink chick?'" Nya locked eyes with the other two, making them whimper in fear. "We heard you guys, and you sound more embarrassed than annoyed. I'm guessing she knocked you guys out."

"Ok, maybe she did," the leader admitted, a cocky grin plastered on his face. "Me and my boys were just hanging and I stood around by myself, checking out the view. Then this townie girl comes walking along and pretty soon, we chase her down. Yeah, she picked me up and drove me into the dirt, but she was smoking. That smell, that figure with that gentle face…it was kinda like a rush seeing a girl like that."

Rage consuming him, Kai extinguished his fiery fist and smacked the guy across the face. The guy merely faced him again and laughed. "You think this is a game? We know that girl, she's our friend and deserves respect."

"You think you're high and mighty? Yeah, I was scared of you for a second, but there's somethings in Ninjago City that you may have heard of and might've seen: police officers, the law, justice. Me and my boys can just say you beat us up for no reason and we get off easy. That chick is long gone, so there goes the eye witness."

"Wha-you little-!" Jay stammered. "We beat up thugs like you guys all the time and never get called out for it. They can't do that! Can they?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Zane answered. "According to the legal system, we would be tried if we were to 'beat them up,' without hesitation. We may be Ninja, we may be celebrities, but we're still people. We have rights and those rights can be taken away if we act against it in this case."

The Blue Ninja groaned in frustration. "Gosh darn it! See, this is why we hardly turn to the cops and laws! They always ruin things with-with _logic._ It's Ninjago, for crying out loud! We lost our sense of logic years ago!"

"Hey, tell your friend to cool it!" one of the guys demanded.

"We've gotta head out on our way, thank you very much."

"Let him go, Kai," Cole said. "It's not worth it. We gave them a warning, and that's that."

Roughly, the Fire Ninja flung the thug to the side, freeing him. He began walking off with his friends in victory as Kai left him with some parting words. "You do anything like that again and we _will_ teach you guys about respect."

The leader chuckled before turning back to the Ninja. That ugly, cocky grin spread across his face as he said a few choice words of his own. "In all fairness, that chick," he chuckled with his friends catching his grin, "your _friend…_ she asked for it."

"You little-!"

 _ **BOOM!**_

The sidewalk behind the thugs shattered, the cement raining down on them in shards. They stood in shock as they slowly turned to the exposed earth that smoked from the impact of the attack. Emerging from the smoke, Lloyd stepped forward and grabbed the leader by his throat. "What was that you said?"

Trying to act tough, he glared back at the young Ninja. "I'm not saying anything, grass stain! You can just-" He stopped as Lloyd's gripped tightened, choking him and cutting off his air.

"What was that you said?" the Green Ninja repeated. His eyes narrowed to daggers on the thug, stirring fear in him. The sight also had his friends taken aback, but it was more than that. In a brief second, flashes of green could almost be seen in his usually calm eyes.

"I didn't mean it when I said she was asking for it!" The guy quivered and shrunk back into his jacket. "I didn't know she was your girlfriend!"

"She's not!" Lloyd threw him to the ground at his friend's feet, his fist igniting with energy. "That girl is my little sister! She went through something terrible on her birthday and just woke up today, after three whole days of us waiting!" His voice began to shake with anger and hints of sadness. "She came here to clear her mind and you three," he took a step closer to them, "you made her hurt even more with what you tried to do!"

"We're sorry!" In unison, they fell to their knees and pleaded for mercy. Their cries fell on deaf ears as Lloyd shot another energy orb close to their lowered faces, scaring them away completely as they ran off screaming.

"Dang," Cole muttered. "The kid went dark."

Kai cautiously turned toward his brother, panting from the exhaustion of his rage, and asked, "You alright, man? You know you just threatened three guys who could report us to the police based on what they said?"

"I do," Lloyd replied while holding his head. "I'm…I'm sorry. I came back because you guys were far behind and I heard what they were saying about her and… Look, all I'm trying to say is even I don't know what's going on with me."

"Well, I know," an old voice said. The Ninja turned back to see and old woman sipping tea from a cup in her wrinkled hand, holding a tea pot in the other. "You bottle up your emotions, young Lloyd Garmadon, like my kettle. They build as you get warmer and warmer until the pressure lets out and you blow off your steam on others. Maybe even those you care for."

"How do you know my name?"

"Wait…I know you!" Nya exclaimed. "Sensei Wu went to get tea from you once. Mistaké, right?"

"That is correct, my dear. I knew your Sensei for a long time, until I heard of his disappearance," Mistaké replied. "Such a shame for a brilliant mind to vanish without a trace. No matter, I'm sure he will be found one day."

"I beg your pardon," the Ninja of Ice began, "but what you said a moment ago implies you know our friend, Maria. Is that not true?"

Mistaké gave out a soft chuckle. "I do know her," she confirmed. "Such a sweet girl, but she, too, is bottling up her most conflicting emotions and thoughts away. She's bound to release it soon, but she needs to figure things out on her own. That's why I gave her some Curiositea to be a guide for her."

"I've never heard of that particular blend before," Cole said. "What does it do?"

"It's a special blend to guide those who wander from their true path. The tea will set them aright, but only help them a portion of the way. It's a new blend I've been testing and decided to make it specially for her."

Jay let out a nervous chuckle as he walked up to Mistaké's face. "I hate to be a downer, but just so we're clear on this, you gave our friend an _untested_ brew of traveling tea? _**So now she's lost somewhere in Ninjago!?"**_

"Jay, relax," Lloyd scolded while pushing him to the back of the group. "Sorry about him," he apologized to the old woman, "but if Sensei trusted you for a long time, then I'm sure your tea worked for her. But where _did_ it take her?"

"I don't know myself," Mistaké shrugged, "the tea took her where she needed to be the most. It took her to a place that will help resolve some of her internal conflicts. So have fun searching," she said as she turned to leave.

"That's it? That can't be it!" Kai declared, but Mistaké had already gone on her way. "Should we chase her down?"

Nya shook her head in disagreement. "What's the use? She doesn't even know where it sent Maria. If we're gonna find her, we need to think about what she's having trouble with. We know she struggled with dealing with her role sometimes and she's probably worried about her mom's opinion."

"So she went back home?" Jay wondered. "How could that help?"

"Maybe it wouldn't, but maybe a _past_ home would help," Lloyd pondered. "What if the tea took her someplace significant to her past life as Seraphina to jog memories?"

"Then I can send my falcon out to scan for rural areas of southern Ninjago," Zane suggested. "The south was Seraphina's territory; it should be expected that we find many landmarks and places that had a connection to her there."

"Then we can fly out with our dragons and find her in a snap," Cole said. "It's all coming together now. She'll be back home soon."

As they continued to converse on the plan, Kai noticed Lloyd distancing himself from the group. Cautiously, he approached the young Ninja, placing a hand on his should in comfort. "Everything all right, big shot?" he playfully asked.

Lloyd let out a sigh and gave in to his friend's concerns. "I'm worried, Kai. It's not just the fact we're trying to find her like a needle in a haystack, but I'm worried about what she's going through. Who knows what she might remember? Who knows if it's hurting her or making her even more afraid?"

"She's going to be fine," Kai assured. "She looks up to and tries to be strong like you. It's pretty obvious she draws inspiration from you. Besides, what could she possibly remember that could make things worse?"

* * *

Every now and then, Blue would release a piercing howl to inform Maria they were getting closer. In all honesty, it did surprise her that he was very intelligent for being an animal. Truly, he must be trained for him to understand her orders clearly and act without hesitation. Then she found herself thinking back to how he was even here, alive and well.

The Knights of Life existed with Seraphina to assist her in battle. Onryō's allies confirmed they met them before years back, therefore, they would be for almost hundreds of years. They _should_ be dead; that would lead up to how she had such a strong connection to the Ninja. All of them were reborn to protect her and help her like they did with her mom.

" _No!"_ Maria screamed as she realized what she just thought of. Blue immediately jumped a foot in the air in surprise at her outburst. "That woman is _not_ my mother! My mother is a librarian and my father was a proud cop of Ninjago City P.D before he died!"

"Brrawwrr!" Blue barked as he ran towards her. He pulled on her shirt sleeve to continue down to their destination. However, she wouldn't move an inch, forcing him to bark constantly until she gave in.

"Will you stop that, Blue?" she shouted, her voice cracking a bit. Blue picked up on the sound and flattened his ears before sitting on his hind legs, his paws raised up and clasped as a sign of forgiveness. He purred softly under his breath and stared intensely at her, making her kneel down. "It's not your fault, Blue," she calmly said, her previous wave of anger gone. "It's all me.

"I just don't know what, but I'm a little scared about what we could find. I want answers to questions I shouldn't be asking myself because they'll destroy everything I've ever known." Maria gave him a short pet on his head before rising up and walking down the path. She heard Blue trot closely behind her as she took the lead.

She held back any tears that dared to spill out and held her head high. In a sort of mantra, she cheered herself on as she walked under the treetops shade. "I started this and I'm going to finish it. No matter what may come from this."

Maria could see a greater beam of light down the road ahead, making her pick up speed. "I know for a fact I have the element of spirit at my hand." Her voice grew with strength and volume as her pace did. "With it, by my own hands, I'll defeat the Demon King Onryō as longs as he exists to threaten my home, my slice of Ninjago under my careful watch. No matter the cost, no matter how much it may hurt, I'll fight!"

Low branches from shrubs and bushes threatened to slow her down, but she swatted them away to form a clear path. "I will fight in my name as a Ninja; it's my role to protect those who are hurt and scared. I will fight in the name of Lloyd; because he took me under his wing and made me his honorary little sister as he became my honorary big brother. I wouldn't have our relationship any other way because it doesn't work any other way. It just wouldn't!

"And I will forever fight in the name of my dad," Maria declared, the light now within her reach. "He believed we each have the power to make the world better for everyone, so that's what I will do. I want to make this world better for my family, for my friends, and future family. They deserve to live without feeling the pain I have endured and worst. They deserve to feel like they can live!"

" _BRAWWRR!"_ Blue stopped in unison with the Pink Ninja as they came upon their destination. He released a triumphant "roar" and stood tall like noble steed. The reaction made Maria break out into laughter and fall to her knees.

"I'm sorry, Blue, I guess I got a little over dramatic," she giggled. "I didn't mean to make you act like…well, this. So I guess we made it, huh?" She looked around and found herself in another grove, not much different than where she was found. "So what is it about this place that makes it so important?"

The furī gave a short nod towards her legs, a small forget-me-not sprouting out that could've been nearly crushed by her leg. Curious, she reached to pick the small flower as it suddenly sprung up and latched to her wrist. She let out a yelp and tried to remove it, but oddly enough, it had faded into her skin and vanished. She frantically pulled her sleeve back to see any marks, but there were none.

"What just happened?" she asked Blue as she began to feel light headed. "B-Blue," she whispered, her eyelids growing heavy, "what did you lead…lead me to?"

* * *

" _Maria,"_ a calming voice spoke, waking her up.

"Who-who said that?" she drowsily replied. As she stood up, Maria felt a sharp pain in her head erupt. She tried her best to ignore it as she looked around, trying to find the source of the voice.

" _Maria!"_ the voice said in a more cheerful tone. From the pitch black of her mind, pink particles suddenly swept in. They twisted and turned before taking on the form of Seraphina, smiling brightly. She reached forward and walked towards her, making Maria brace herself.

"Hang on, I didn't summon you! Just hold on a-" She stopped as she felt a cool sensation pass through her. Looking up, she realized Seraphina had walked straight on, most likely passing right through her. "Am I…invisible to you?"

Out of nowhere, a light descended from above, shining down on a crib. It was round with a curtain draped over it, frills coming along down the sides. Soft pink bows were ornately placed all over it, indicating there was a baby girl. Confirming her thoughts, cries were heard from the crib just as Seraphina reached its side. She reached in and pulled out a swaddled, pink blanket that she cradled in her arms with the utmost care.

" _Hush now,"_ the Spirit Queen cooed, _"I'm here. Mommy came back like she promised. Remember, Maria?"_

As the cries came to a stop, Maria's heart dropped. An unknown force compelled her to walk over and get a closer look at the scene unfolding. She peeked over Seraphina's shoulder and locked eyes with herself. The baby's face was just like her; it's drying eyes were like hers, along with her tiny mouth that formed into a simple smile at the sight of Seraphina. " _Mama_!" the baby gurgled happily.

" _That's right,"_ Seraphina said with a short laugh. _"Mama came back like she always has. Nana just needed to see me about some important things about our home. Although, they will never be as important as you. This was the last visit for a long time, I promise."_

Maria heard sniffling and quickly wiped her eyes. To her surprise, it wasn't her crying but Seraphina as her shoulder trembled. She walked over to see Seraphina from the front and indeed, tears were pouring from her eyes. She struggled to keep a straight smile while looking at her baby, so instead, she looked up to the nonexistent sky.

" _I just want you to stop having nightmares and sleep peacefully. All you deserve is to live a happy life as yourself."_ She released an emotional sigh before carrying on. _"No matter what you choose to do with your life, no matter how far you walk away from me to pursue your dreams, just be happy and know you're loved._

" _You deserve so much more than what I have provided for you. You don't need to be a princess, but know in my heart you're always my little princess."_

Emotion overcoming her, Maria reached forward to embrace Seraphina herself but slipped. Her footing gave way and she slipped forward down a tunnel of darkness. She didn't even scream as she fell, but instead had tears start to fall out from her eyes. When she supposedly hit the bottom, light emerged and Blue was up close to her face, concern showing as she let the tears finally overflow and drench her face. Trembling all over, she raised her head and let out a desperate cry.

" _MAMA!"_

* * *

 ** _"_** _ **All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."**_ **Abraham Lincoln.**

 **Review, like, and give comments, questions, concerns. I know they'll be coming.**

 **Next time on Ninjago: Legend Undone…**

 **Full Disclosure**

 **Until then, God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.**


	3. 3:Full Disclosure

**Disclaimer: Surprise! I don't own Ninjago, just the original content.**

 **I'm back guys! I know its holiday season, but I'll try my best not to have things go crazy with updates and such. Speaking of updates, our new update schedule after this week will be Wednesdays and possibly Saturdays once holiday season is over. However, I may upload a special on Christmas Eve/Day. We'll see (; Also, feel free to glance at my tumblr, CrystalliaWriting, for story related art and chapter art! Also, bear with me, my internet is down and my whole family is relying on a portable hotspot, so for a few days hopefully, I will be able to go online and post chapters and stuff…it's just gonna be super slow. :\**

 **Now on with the story!**

" _ **I don't believe you ever get closure on anything. Things leave a permanent mark on you."**_ **Allison Anders**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Full Disclosure**

 _Dear everyone,_

 _I'm sorry to just leave suddenly like this up and out of nowhere, but it was either this or lie to all of your faces. We should all know by now I'm not fond of lying so here's the thing: I'm leaving. It's not permanent, it's just a short break for me to process…things. It's hard knowing you've been out for three days after indirectly releasing a demon of mass destruction back into the world. I don't feel good inside, and I mean in my mind and heart in a sort of metaphorical sense, I guess. I know it doesn't make any sense, all I know is it's not healthy for me to be like this. I need to just get some fresh air, walk around the city, and then, swear to all that's good, will be back in time for dinner._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Maria._

 _P.S._

 _If we can, whether I'm depressed or cheerful, let's have that birthday dinner that you guys planned. I know you made my favorites which means spinach and tomato pizza with a stuffed, herb crust. I need the food and we all know I get really hungry._

Lloyd's eyes scanned over the note once more, only stopping to look up and make sure his dragon wasn't close to crashing into his teammates. He sighed as he folded it back up and tucked it away in his gi, tired of rereading the text and the confusing message in it. No matter how times he read it, he couldn't figure out what exactly was going on his sister's head. She said she hated lying, but from the way she worded something, it was obvious Maria found it easier to lie when she wrote.

Whatever it was, he intended to found out and bring her home. She _needed_ to be home. She belonged with them. She belonged with hi-

"Kid, watch it!" Kai's voice called out to him, bringing the young Ninja back to reality as he bumped into the Red Ninja's dragon with his own. The two went swirling briefly, nearly hitting the treetops of the forest had they not caught themselves at the last second. As they straightened out their dragons, Kai sent a concerned look towards his friend. "You alright, Lloyd? You fell to the back of the group and nearly crashed into me even after I called your name several times."

The young leader took a clearer look at his surroundings, remembering the signal Zane got from his falcon, leading them to follow the nindroid on dragon back over the Forest of Tranquility. He remembered convincing Zane to take the note Maria left behind to read it for himself, getting lost in her parting words. Thankfully, he wasn't actually lost, but as Kai had said, the two of them were a good distance away from the others. "I-I-I'm ok," Lloyd finally replied, uncertainty in his answer. "I'm just fine."

"Then pick up the pace, we're getting ready to land," he said as he sped up to reach the others. Lloyd copied his actions, shaking off his previous thoughts that clouded his mind. As he reached his teammates, they already had commanded their dragons to fold in their powerful wings to lower themselves between the narrow gaps of the trees. As he began hovering over them, he quickly commanded his energy dragon to prepare to descend.

Once they were close enough to the ground, they ordered their dragons to vanish, no longer needing them to travel. They gathered on the ground as the nindroid tried to track down his falcon's signal. "Man, it's been a while since we've been here," Cole thought aloud. "Takes you back to our earlier days, huh?"

"Yeah," Nya agreed while looking up towards the trees barely touching the sky. "I mean, I really only remember getting kidnapped and the Fire Temple being destroyed. It's not exactly a happy memory, but it's something to look back on. Speaking of which, what else could be here that's significant to Seraphina?"

"I'm looking into that now," Zane said while looking off into the distance. "My falcon picked up something down south of here. That's where we should find something that'll lead us to Maria." He lead the group once more through the thick forest. "I feel it, as well. Memories of our time here are coming back to me."

Jay chuckled in agreement. "Yeah, those were good times- hanging around a campfire, crashing the _Bounty_ down here after we got attacked by Morro. Well, they were mostly good, but the thing is we've been here before. I'm curious, too, what did your falcon find?"

"I'm not quite sure, yet I'm certain what it found will help."

"Ok, but if we get lost in here and attacked by a wild animal, I'm blaming you."

It was Lloyd's turn to laugh at Jay, finally letting a smile form across his face. "There's nothing left in the forest that could hurt us, Jay. I opened the Fangpyre tomb when I was little and released them, now this place is deserted. I mean there's the graveyard at the center of the forest and the Well of Souls, but we're not headed there."

Zane looked over his shoulder with his eyebrow arched. "Pardon, but did you say the _center_ of the forest?"

"Yeah?"

"Oh, then we are headed there."

"Hold up!" Jay exclaimed while stopping the group with his sudden outburst. "I'm not going to any graveyard, especially if your falcon is there because he found something spirity related there. If a _graveyard_ is somehow connected to _Seraphina,_ then that means we could get attacked by some demon or something!"

"Oh, come on, Jay," Kai said with a roll of his eyes. "There's no demon or evil spirit that would be hanging around some graveyard."

"Actually, I glanced over Maria's book and gathered some data of a few creatures," the Ninja of Ice stated. "Moryō, low ranking members of the Onryō species, can be found robbing graves for corpses, then there's also nuppeppō-"

" _Nope!"_ Jay turned and marched away from the group. "Nope! I don't care if Maria's lost! I didn't sign up to be caught again by a smelly, sweaty nuppeppō! I'm not having it!"

Nya groaned as she turned back to follow after her boyfriend. "I'll go get him. You guys keep going and we'll catch up in a bit."

As the two left from the others sight, Cole whispered over to Zane. "Do nuppeppō really hang around graveyards?"

"Sometimes, but they are rare in the wild and have distinct odor we would've smelled by now." The other Ninja sighed in relief as they continued on their way, a thick fog beginning to disperse from the supposed center of the forest. "I sense my falcon is nearby which means we're here. The graveyard of the Forest of Tranquility."

Towering over them where two black arcs with a red orb in the center, allowing them to stick out enough from the darkened graveyard. Rows of headstones, slightly cracked with age and weather, circled around towards the center of a mutated tree resembling two snakes. Below the tree was the opened tomb that once held captive the Fangpyre tribe before Lloyd had come along.

"Yeah, we're at the center, alright," the Green Ninja confirmed as he walked up to the snake tree. He rested a hand along the rough bark, a sense of familiarity rushing back to him. "It feels like it wasn't that long ago that I triggered the events leading up to me becoming who I am today. Now we're back here because of who Maria once was."

"Speaking of which, is anyone getting past life memories?" Kai asked. "Just curious so we won't panic if anyone of us suddenly passes out because we remember something from our past lives."

They shook their heads as Nya, gently dragging an unsure Jay by his arm, regrouped with the others. "What'd we miss?"

"Nothing much, just talking about this place a bit,"Cole replied. "That aside, where the heck is the falcon?"

A squawk echoed above their heads, making them look upwards at the titanium falcon hovering above. It refused to perch down on Zane's arm when its master held it up, nor did it show any noticeable reaction towards the other Ninja. It insisted on flying around the graveyard in a sort of circle pattern before landing on top of the arc farthest from them, pecking at the ruby orb.

"Yeah, your bird has gone nuts," Jay declared. "It's gone glitchy. So much for finding Maria."

"No, it can't be. My falcon has never failed me before," Zane gasped sadly. "My father made him to be intelligent and assist me when I need his help. There must be a reason he's acting this way."

"Ok, well, while you figure that out, I'll be standing close to the exit."

"Don't worry, Zane," Lloyd assured, "maybe he does know something and we need to figure it out."

"What is there to figure out?" Nya asked. "I'm sorry, but I'm a little confused, too. It ignored your command and flew around in circles. Now it's just up there pecking out the arch."

Zane broke apart from the group and walked over to where his companion was rested atop. Carefully, he climbed up the arch's pole and reached a hand out to the falcon,trying to calmly coax it to come down. The titanium bird still had no reaction to his master, insistently pecking on the ruby orb. The White Ninja reached out further to tempt his bird to come back when he stopped, staring straightforward into the orb. His blank expressions confused the team at first until he finally gestured for someone to join him.

Lloyd walked over cautiously, unaware of what his friends intentions were. Carefully, he climbed up the pole of the arch just as Zane had and held himself up on the aged wood. Zane pulled his head back away from the orb and looked over to Lloyd. "Look closely," he said.

Still confused, Lloyd slowly aligned his eyes with the orb and let out a gasp. While looking through the orb, everything was noticeably a shade darker to a dark gray. What really caught his eye was the tombstones, the two inner most rows dotting a splotch of pink on their tops while the outer rows had markings that were more scattered across. He pulled back and looked at the graveyard looking completely normal as an old, creepy graveyard should. "It's a puzzle," he whispered to himself.

"Did you say something, Lloyd?" Cole called up.

"The orb and the tombstones! It's all a hidden puzzle. When I look through the stone, I can see some of the tombstones are marked with a pink smudge."

"Well, how the heck are we supposed to solve this puzzle?" Jay asked. "Sure, you can see from up there, but what are we supposed to do?"

"Hang on a minute," Nya interrupted. "Remember how the falcon was circling above us? It looked weird to me how it wasn't a perfect circle, it looked more like he was making smaller circles from the way he dipped in and out. Maybe it's some kind of symbol he was trying to draw out."

Zane climbed down from the arch and joined the others on the ground. "Not _just_ a symbol, the spirit symbol." He walked towards the center of the graveyard and stood under the shadow of the bare tree, looking upwards at its twin branches. "I believe once we form the other spirals, the tree will be at the center and reveal something to us."

"Ok, good idea," Cole said, "but what if this a trap and we end up summoning a half dead army that'll kill us on sight?"

"Then we should run."

"Alright, focus," Lloyd ordered as he looked back through the red orb. "Ok, if move them at the right angle, it should work like Zane said. Now listen closely."

* * *

Blue's warm tongue kept sympathetically licking her cheek as cold tears poured down and dripped off her chin. Maria trembled and hugged herself in comfort, trying to understand the phenomenon she had just went through. "It can't be true," she told herself. "Forget it, forget her."

" _Brawwr?"_ Blue whined as he nuzzled his fuzzy head into the crook of her neck, his blue green fur popping out from her pink curl. "Blue…bad?"

Maria wiped her tears away, sniveling as she tried to speak. "No, you're good, Blue. You're a really good boy," she softly chuckled while hugging him around his neck. She slowly began crying again as visions came back into her head of her…birth mother.

She hated every little bit of it what it stood for and herself. The sight of herself as a baby in Seraphina's arms still made her try to convince herself it was all a lie. It was a lie she set herself up for by accepting tea from that old woman that brought her here. She wasn't ready for this as she previously thought she had, she rushed it.

"Why?" she asked Blue. "Why bring me here to shatter my life as I know it? What even is this place?"

The furī backed away from her embrace with a saddened look on his face. He stared at her for a second before leaning in and gently grabbing her sleeve in his mouth, gesturing to follow him again. "Blue, fetch?"

"How are you even alive?" Maria asked, ignoring his actions. "The Knights of Life existed, like, a million years ago, and so should've Seraphina! How am I even here? Why did she leave me with-" her voice caught on a lump that she forcibly swallowed, "why did she leave me with Elise?! Why did she leave me like this?!"

Blue's ears flattened against his skull, yet he wasn't phased by her volume raising. "Fetch…Peter play-"

" _ **Peter is dead!"**_

The young girl's voice seemingly silenced all sounds around the forest. Any chirping from birds, buzzing from insects, any rustling of leaves halted as her scream echoed briefly before becoming silent. Both Maria and Blue stared at each other in shock at the words that left her mouth. She broke the moment by standing up and fully wiping away any tears she had left on her face. "He's dead," she confirmed.

"All of them who fought with or were with Seraphina died…expect me." She sighed as she glanced over the furī's widening eyes. "I'm sorry, but it's the truth, Blue. Peter isn't coming back, and I don't know how long you've been waiting for him to come back, but that's the truth. He's not coming back at all.

"I've been waiting, too," she continued while looking him straight in the eye. "All my life I've been told I don't belong in Tranquilville, and sometimes, people said I have no place to even live. They were right, you know. My whole life is lie and my home is all of southern Ninjago, but what good is that? Maybe I should've died, too."

Memories of her childhood came across her mind; all the moments of being shoved to the ground, laughed at, teased, being chased down, made almost perfect sense. She didn't act like them or look like a normal human because she wasn't the least bit human in the first place. It was undeniable that she was a spirit, _the_ Spirit Princess, she denied herself to be. Princess…just the thought of that word made her shudder in disgust at what it meant. For her, it always meant old storybooks the teacher would read at nap time, leaving her questioning why each story was told the same way.

It meant someone who was praised by every little girl to the point where they aspired to be one themselves, or someone who every little boy wanted to have for his own. A princess was someone who didn't try to be strong and break free from their dangers with what power they had; that task was the purpose of prince or knight. A princess was someone who was always being oppressed by an evil dragon or monster, screaming their lungs out. They didn't know how to fight or be happy without finding true love they had always dreamed of. It was someone she always questioned about, someone she didn't understand or see the great potential of.

A princess…was who she was now.

" _Brawwr!"_ Blue suddenly shouted as he quickly grabbed ahold of her sleeve again, dragging her away with more force and hastiness. "Leave! Leave!"

"Blue, stop! What're you doing?" Maria asked while trying to stand her ground. "What's the matter?"

 _ **CRASH!**_

Out of nowhere, an uprooted tree came flying across the sky and landed not far from the pair. They nearly fell from the aftershock of its landing, Maria finally complying with Blue to lead her away. He released her to allow her to run from whatever danger that threatened them. "Blue, fetch a safe place!" Maria commanded. "Do you hear me? Fetch safety!"

The furī let out a short bark as he picked up speed down the rockier, thicker areas of the forest, her feet nearly slipping on a few jagged rocks. Behind them came a slow, _thud_ of footsteps, indicating the creature was very large and had not yet caught on to them yet. She heard low growls rumble through the trees, scaring away any nestling birds from their homes to the sky. She didn't dare to look back at what it was in fear she would be paralyzed with fear and doom herself.

Blue released another quick bark just before they approached a nearby cliff. The two stopped just before they could've fallen off into the grove below them. Blue took the lead of carefully climbing down the rocks and compacted dirt as fast as he could. Maria, mentally cursing herself for not packing her weapon, followed suit, trying her best not to place her feet or hands on any of the slippery rocks or loosening dirt. From above, the silhouette of the creature creeped over them, the sun in her eyes making it hard to place what it was. They continued to climb down further to reach the safety of the ground, keeping a close eye on the beast in case it caught on.

After a moment, it walked away calmly, never truly knowing of their existence. A sigh of relief left her lips as they continued down their way. Maria's arms began trembling from exhaustion, nearly making her slip a few times had she not caught herself immediately after she lost her grip. "So what's down here that makes this place safe, Blue?"

"Safe," the furī chirped "safe…Queen say safe."

Maria tensed up a little but brushed it off, focusing instead on finally making it to the ground. "What is safe about this place, Blue?" she asked again. From where she stood it looked like an ordinary grove, with scarce trees and more openness than a regular forest. In the distance she heard water pouring and bubbling nearby, sparking curiosity in her as she investigated.

As she neared the sound, a low pain grew in her head. She began to lose her footing, quickly grabbing on from one tree to another for support. As she reached for another, Maria felt an oddly smooth texture amongst one of the trees instead of rough bark. She lifted her hand and found a small, rounded prayer charm tied around the tree with rope. Carved into was a pink spirit symbol that looked bright and newly made.

"What…what is this?" she questioned. She felt Blue nudge her leg, signaling her to look down. By her foot was another forget-me-not flower by her foot, though it was wilted and not fluorescent as it should be. "Is that for me? Another memory I'm meant to find?"

"Fetch," was all Blue said he sat calmly beside her.

"Alright, fine," she replied. Cautiously, she leaned down and gently plucked the dying. It didn't jump at her like the previous one had, instead it weakly faced her with the little strength it had, slowly opening its petals to her. She brought up to her face and sniffed it's fading fragrance, letting it sink in.

Other than the pain she felt in her head growing faster, nothing else had happened that triggered any sort of memory. She waited while trying to contain her headache, getting more frustrated as time progressed and nothing happened. "Oh, come on! I'm willingly accepting it this time!" she shouted out loud. "I cried like a baby and had a breakdown. What more do you want!?"

" _Isn't it beautiful, Cliona?"_ Seraphina's voice finally answered Maria's pleas, though it surprised her at first. She hadn't blacked out and Blue showed no response to hearing the voice, making her realize it was different this time. Out from the trees came a faint and blurry vision of Seraphina cradling a baby Maria in her arms, and Cliona looking around the grove. _"I think it's the perfect place to set up a spirit spring."_

" _Are you sure, Phina?"_ Cliona asked. _"There's a graveyard nearby that could attract some demons, not to mention there's been some sighting of onikuma in these woods."_

" _Positive, Clio,"_ she said with a smile. _"The upper cliff will separate the demons and add on to this spring's protective barrier once it's charged with energy. I've also been meaning to use that graveyard as a shortcut so anyone looking for this place can easily-"_

The Spirit Queen was interrupted by baby Maria's soft whimpering turning into cries. She focused all her attention on her child, gently shushing her as she rocked her in her arms. _"That one will grow up to be a real crier when she's older,"_ Cliona chuckled. _"I don't understand why you even brought her here with demons lurking about."_

A serious look spread across Seraphina's face as she was nuzzling her baby's own, the closest thing to anger Maria had seen from her. _"No one will ever touch my baby girl, not if I have anything to say about it."_ She straightened up and returned to her queen like stature, appearing graceful and perfect once again. " _Besides,"_ she warmly said, _"Maria deserves to know the beauty of her culture as a spirit and potential Great Elder."_

" _There you go again, talking about her that way,"_ the White Witch groaned.

" _Talking about her in what way?"_

" _Seraphina, you're only exposing her to_ half _of her culture. You know fully well you can't keep lying to your subjects and Knights forever about her hybridity."_

Maria covered her mouth with her hands as she gasped, though it was useless since no one else could experience what she was now. "I…I have a dad? Wait, I'm a hybrid?" she whispered to herself.

" _I'm trying my best, Cliona,"_ Seraphina sternly said, refusing to face her friend. _"I know Maria will encounter challenges being part human, having my face and powers reborn in her. However, I believe it should be taken slow, she's just a child and deserves to be a child. She doesn't deserve to know of this while she's still so innocent, and you have no right to be bringing up this conversation while she's right here._

" _Besides, you're the one who kept urging me to come with you on missions not long after her birth. She needs me, and I can't miss out on time with her anymore."_

" _If you were a good mother, you wouldn't blame others for your own stupid mistakes!"_ Cliona bellowed, waking up the baby and causing her to cry. _"You've been fooling around with that Psyche man and look where you are now. You've got a mutt as an heir to the throne!"_

Seraphina stood calmly as she shielded her baby by holding her close to her chest. With her eyebrows narrowed down slightly, she quickly slapped the old spirt across the face. The hit was enough to send her falling backwards and onto the ground, holding her mouth in pain. _"The south is my kingdom,"_ Seraphina coldly rebuked, _"and as its Queen and Great Elder, I order you to head back to your own territory. Your presence is no longer wanted here."_

Without a word, the Elder of the West stood up and slammed her staff on the ground. In a puff of smoke, she had vanished, leaving the Spirit Queen to shush her baby once more while trying to hold in her own tears. The vision ended, leaving Maria and Blue alone together. She found herself in tears, falling down to the ground while holding her head in disbelief. She felt a strong power surge through her body and saw flashes of pink come across her eyes, but she ignored it.

"Why?" she asked herself, body beginning to glow with a faint pink energy. "Why do I live like this? Why a hybrid? Why a princess?"

With a final yell, her left eye stared to glow bright pink as her body released a small wave of energy. _"Why did you leave me like this, Seraphina?!"_

* * *

"Why?" Jay groaned. "Why isn't it working?!"

"Hey, we got the symbol right," Lloyd called from his position on the arch. "It looks like the spirit symbol to me. Maybe just we have to wait for something to happen."

"That's what you've been saying for the past hour! An hour of my life I can never get back. _Never!"_

Sadly, that was true for all of the Ninja right now as they were tired and sweaty from trying to solve the puzzle. Over the past hour, they kept arranging and rearranging the tombstones into forming the symbol under Lloyd's command. When nothing happened as expected, they rearranged them again by the slightest angles and directions after waiting for a few minutes. It was tiring for all of them to move the heavy headstones again and again, plus Lloyd could feel his legs and arms cramping from hanging off the arch for the past hour.

"Can we just go home?" Jay whined. "I'm hungry, I'm tired, and I've tried holding _it_ in for so long, I swear, my bladder's gone numb!"

"Fine," Lloyd gave in as he slowly climbed down the arch. "Anyone who wants to head back, go. I'm going after Maria."

"By yourself?" Cole asked. "You sure, kid?"

"Yeah, it was wrong of me to leave you guys to do a lot of the heavy lifting. If you need a break, go ahead. I'm sure I'll find a way to reach her, somehow."

As his teammates guiltily walked towards the entrance of the graveyard, a sudden surge of energy course through them all, giving them chills. "Did anyone else feel that?" Kai asked, scared for the response he would get.

"I did," Zane answered. "It felt like…like Maria's energy."

"Wait, so she's nearby?" Lloyd excitedly asked. "Maybe she's closer than we thought."

 _ **RUMBLE…RUMBLE.**_

The ground slightly shook as the tombstones suddenly lit up, revealing their hidden pink marks. They glowed brilliantly, their glow reaching into the ground and making its way toward the tree. Instead of lighting the tree as Zane had previously predicated, the abandoned Well of Souls light up with a beam of pink light, opening up to a short of portal.

"Are we supposed to go in there?" Nya thought aloud. "It looks kinda sketchy to me."

The Ninja had little time to rethink their decision as the portal began quickly fading away. With their second wind taking effect, they stumbled towards the fading portal before it was completely gone. As they reached it, they all tripped over the other and fell into the portal, whisked away to where they hoped to find their friend.

* * *

It was a moment they quickly wanted to forget as soon as they landed. They wanted to forget falling from the sky and into the trees in a painful fashion. Some would soon deny they fell flat on their faces or on top of another when it was over. Lloyd painfully sat up, looking around for his teammates. "Are we all here? Sound off. Kai?"

"On your right," he weakly replied.

"Nya?"

"Over here," she waved as she sat up.

"Jay?"

The Blue Ninja spat out a mouth full of grass. "Bleeding internally."

"Cole?"

"Up here," he called from above as his gi was snagged on a branch that snapped under his weight. He fell to the ground with yelp. "Now I'm down here."

"Zane?"

"On this fuzzy rock," the nindroid said as he climbed down from the rock and headed towards the others. "I was lucky it broke my fall."

"What are you talking about, tin can?" Cole asked as he limped over. "There's no such thing as a fuzzy rock."

Zane tensed up a little as he turned back to his landing point. "Then…then what did I fall on?"

A rough yawn erupted as the 'fuzzy rock' stood up on its hind legs, blinking open its beady eyes. It stood tall at around 18 feet tall, a deep roar escaping its lips as it stared down the Ninja. The demon bear licked its lips, quickly diving towards them to snatch them up.

"Run for it!" Lloyd screamed as they dodged its attack, darting off right after. "Zane, what the heck is that?!"

"An onikuma!" he shouted between breaths. "A demon bear that is born once a bear lives a long life and gets bigger as time passes. In ancient times-"

"Skip the history lesson and just tell us how to kill this thing!" Nya demanded.

"And just to save you some time, buddy," Kai panted, "my armor still isn't working. So don't think too much about it!"

"Then a fire would suffice and buy us some time!"

Kai, catching onto his friend's idea, skidded to a stop and faced the bear head on. As it stormed closer to him, he conjured up a huge fireball and aimed it at the beast. Without warning, the onikuma ate the fireball and chewed it up like it was real food. After it had swallowed it down its stomach, its dark fur began alighting with flames, continuing to chase them down.

"I think I made it worse!" Kai cried out as he ran towards the front of the group. "Why couldn't she have been teleported to a flower garden or something?!"

"Kai, wait!" Zane warned. "There's a cliff ahead!"

"Thanks for the heads up!" As they neared the cliff, Kai had no hesitation jumping off and carefully landing this time with his airjitzu. The other Ninja quickly did the same, narrowly escaping the onikuma's long claws. It roared angrily and watched them lower to the ground from its spot on the cliff. Tired of them, it walked away in an upset manner.

Once the beast had left, they all breathed a breath of relief. "Oh, thank goodness, it's gone," Nya sighed. "I can't take this anymore. I'm done with the day."

"I'm done with life," Jay added on. "I just wanna go home, curl up in bed with something nice to eat, and sleep for 10 hours. Is that so much to ask?"

Murmurs of agreement came from them, that slowly broke apart with a faint sob. "Jay," Cole asked, "are you crying already?"

"That's not me!"

Though his head pounded from what he had been through, Lloyd walked over past a few trees to the source. To his delight, Maria sat unharmed with a strange creature by her side comforting her. "Maria!" he laughed, causing her to look up with fading pink eyes. "You're ok! I've been worried!" He walked over to her with open arms, ready for a hug, but she shook her head before rushing to get up and run away.

"Wait!" he called out to her, following her through the grove. "What's wrong? Why won't you talk to me?"

"Stay away!" she called back.

Lloyd continued to follow her, trying his best to ignore the throbbing pain in his body. He followed her to a small bubbling spring, a marble statue of Seraphina standing perfectly straight with open arms atop a small cliff. She stopped for a moment looking at the statue, but quickly continued running to the spring, tearing away at the still water. The Green Ninja was beginning to catch up with her just as his foot tripped over the soft ground, causing him to land on his head. He let out a yell as he held it tightly, succumbing to the immense pain.

"I'm sorry," Maria soft voice apologized. He looked up at her from his spot on the ground and saw her face. It was full of guilt instead of sadness as he half expected as she barely looked at him. "I've been causing so much trouble and now you're in pain."

"It's fine, bud," he assured. "I've been pushing myself to hard. Goryō's the one-"

"He should've killed me!" she snapped.

Confusion spread across Lloyd's face. "What? How can you say that? You're alive and deserve to be."

"You're wrong," she disagreed. "He told me himself; I should've died long ago, and he's true. I shouldn't even be the way I am but I am." She pointed towards the marble statue, now a disgusted look on her face. "It's all because of her…my birth mother."

The Green Ninja let out a nervous chuckled after hearing what his sister had said. "I'm sorry, Maria. I think I hit my head lot harder than I thought because it sounded like you just said-"

"You heard me right, that woman is my birth mother," she confirmed. "Goryō told me, I've seen two memories that confirm it. I'm her baby, but that makes me the actual Spirit Princess." Maria choked down a sob as she fully faced her brother for the first time in a long time.

"I heard her and Cliona in a past memory that I'm also spirit human hybrid, a mutt as Cliona called me. Guess who dad is?" Her voice cracked as tears began flowing freely from her trembling eyes. "Christophe Psyche, a man who had a child out of wedlock, a man who I looked up to for so long, gave me his hair. Everything else from how I look to my powers is from my mother…the Spirit Queen, Seraphina."

Her sobs overcame her as she fell to her knees, now nearly waist deep in the spring. She coughed from crying too hard, her voice becoming raspy and tired as she wailed. With all that he had, Lloyd walked over and wrapped his arms around her, nearly becoming emotional at sensation of holding her again. "Is it true? You're really a princess and a hybrid?"

He felt her head nod yes from what room she had in his arms. "It's all true, every little bit is true. I'm a hybrid and I'm a princess that never belonged here or with my own people. Cliona was disgusted by me in the memory I saw, calling me a mutt. Then my mother left me like this, all alone with nowhere to go."

"You're wrong," he denied. "You're more than a hybrid or royalty name, you're a part of our team. You're family and you're my sister." Lloyd pulled back from the hug and wiped her tears away with his hand. "I could care less if you were part oni, part Onryō, part animal demon, I don't care. The you I know is someone who I want to be there for and wants to be by my side when I become a full fledged Sensei, remember that?"

"I do," she sniffled. "I promised that, but-"

"Nothing's changed," he declared. "You're the Spirit Princess and southern Ninjago is your kingdom, but you're still that same nice girl that I met on the street that came all the way from Tranquilville. You're a hybrid, but you're still that girl who wants to get stronger for her own reasons. You're an outcast, but you're someone I can't be without anymore. You're still my Maria."

Completely calmed and dumbfounded by his words, Maria sat perfectly still, no longer shaking from sadness. He stood up and helped her up as he kept ahold of her arms. "There's things in everyone's lives they have to learn to accept, but not embrace. They don't have to be defined by them either or be consumed by them. There's more about yourself you're going to have learn, but you're still you."

A smile, simple and small, finally appeared on Maria's face. "Thank you, Lloyd. Thank you so much."

The two rolled their eyes as they heard sniffling coming from behind the trees. "You can come out now," Lloyd called over his shoulder. As they expected, the other Ninja came out from the shadows, tearing up slightly from the earlier conversation. Jay and Cole, however, were full on crying, touched very deeply by Lloyd's words.

"Oh, that was beautiful!" Jay sobbed as he hugged them both. "Does this mean we have to bow down and call you Princess, though?"

"Of course not," Maria chuckled as the returned the hug, the other joining in. "Just being Maria will always be fine. Plus only Goryō knows for now, so maybe we should keep the 'undead, hybrid princess' a secret between the seven of us."

"Speaking of which, we haven't seen the demons yet," Cole mentioned. "Wonder what's going on with them."

"Then there's the Great Elders," Kai sighed. "They probably don't know yet and might have a heart attack knowing you're alive."

"Save it for another day," Lloyd shrugged. "Why cram everything life changing in just one day? I think we should go home and get some pizza."

"Here, here," Jay agreed.

" _Here, here,"_ a voice mimicked. Jay broke the group hug apart as he fell backwards, the strange creature latching onto his legs. It rubbed against his face before licking it with its long tongue.

"Gross!" Jay shuddered, trying to break away from its embrace. "Seriously, what is this thing?"

"That's Blue, a furī," Maria explained. "He was Peter's pet from way back and guided me. When this tea lady, Mistaké, gave me traveling tea, it lead me to him. He kept leading me to safety and past memories."

The furī quickly proved her claims by staring straight at Jay, wagging his tail like a puppy, chirping, "Peter! Master…fetched Blue!"

Jay couldn't help but give in and awe at the creature, pulling it in for a hug. "Ok, that was pretty cute. But my name is Jay, Blue." He hopefully looked up at Lloyd with a smile on his face. "So can we keep him?"

The young leader just shrugged. "Why not? He kept Maria safe and might be able to reveal more about the Knights of Life, seeing as he can talk. Let's all go home."

One by one, the Ninja summoned their dragons to takeoff. Blue hopped up and sat close to Jay, happy to be with his 'master' once again. Maria did the same, both her and Lloyd happy to have each other again. Their dragons gave out a roar as they lifted off into the sky, flying away from the forest. For a moment, Lloyd swore he heard Maria quietly whisper something to herself that made him smile, but decided not say a word.

"I love you, brother."

* * *

" _ **Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have- life itself."**_ **Walter Anderson**

 **Next time on Ninjago: Legend Undone…**

 **Until then, God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.**


	4. 4: Soul-searching

**Disclaimer: What's original is mine. What's noticeably Ninjago is Ninjago and Hageman property.**

 **I'm back, people! Now if things go smoothly, the special might happen. Sort of like a final New Years special. I don't wanna get your hopes up so keep that in mind. Without further ado, I present chapter 4!**

 **Also, how are you all feeling about the bookend quotes? Like? Hate? Let me know in the reviews**

" _ **So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and that I'm still trying to figure out how that could be."**_ **Stephen** **Chbosky,** _ **The Perks of Being a Wallflower**_

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Soul-searching**

"Maria…" he breathed. The Demon King released a powerful yawn as he sat up, opening his heavy eyelids for the first time in a long time. Everywhere he glanced was the same sight he woke up to from previous years, a dark, dripping cave unfit for a king. Yet this is what he and his subjects were confined to, so long as that Spirit Queen returned to face him in battle.

But the name he uttered not more than a second ago with his waking breath wasn't one he was certainly familiar with. How he learned to say such a common and plain sounding name confused him, but it was a waste of time to ponder the thought. Onryō looked forward towards the entrance of his cavern kingdom, his subjects trembling at the sight of him before correctly kneeling in respect, heads lowered. "Our King," they welcomed.

"Rise," he ordered, "and bring me a mirror."

The demons did just that as Kitsune walked up to him, changing his form to that of a tall mirror. Onryō stood as he observed his imperfect form once more. His body was a black mass of shadow that cloaked his arms and legs like a cape. His face was concealed by the mask he wore, allowing only his wild, white hair to spring out from the sides. His yellow eyes were narrowed by the red bones that adorned the upper lids, meeting in the center with a matching jewel. His crown, donning a "third eye" and smaller rock, retained their shape he carved himself from oni horns.

As he reached a red clawed hand out from his cloak to touch his face, he called over to Jorōgumo, "How long has it been since my arrival?"

"Three days," she replied, "but a fourth day passed before you truly woke up. In that time, you retained your sealed form and slept. Harionago had drained a portion of your power earlier to keep you dormant while Goryō was still on the loose. We gave that power back to you just now in hopes of your awakening finally happening."

"Goryō," he growled before slamming a fist onto the stone table. "That traitor has caused enough trouble for the last time. Where is that foolish beast?"

Gashadokuro lowered his head down to meet with his King. "Jorōgumo subdued him with her venom and confiscated his ship. He's back down…well, _there._ We bring him up every hour to refill him with venom so he won't escape again."

"Escape? Goryō has escaped from that place?"

"My King, we don't know how,but it just happened," Harionago explained, bearing the strange machine in her arms. "We've considered the possibility of draining him of energy to keep him dormant, but with your arrival, we knew a decision as big as this must be approved. Whatever you command, we will carry out. Just know he is very serious and has proven to be a strong threat against you and the Spirit Queen's reincarnate."

"Then I'll kill him," he declared. "He has no use left in this guard."

"But then you'll gain his power!" Jorōgumo exclaimed. "The reincarnate will be overcome with power and she might hurt her allies and-!"

"Silence!" Onryō commanded her. "Jorōgumo, do you have feelings about that joke of a reincarnate and her allies? Our enemies reborn to fight us again?"

She quickly shook her head, her face slightly nervous. "Of course not, but you and the reincarnate _are_ connected in power and strength. She doesn't remember the full extent of her powers, leaving her at a disadvantage, but it gives us a disadvantage if she were to kill herself or her allies while they possess the gems. We can't risk her overloading on power and threaten her existence, as well as yours."

"This reincarnate…" he murmured, "her name is Maria, is it not? And she has no clear recollection of the past we share?"

"That's…correct, King Onryō. We were watching them with the Seers Stone table, but the connection is blocked. We don't know what they are up to now. Last we checked, the reincarnate awoke yesterday in a state of panic. We don't know what happened after that."

Kitsune cleared his throat as he walked up to Onryō's side. "Excuse me, my King, but while you're pondering the thought of killing of Goryō, I had a question. How'd you know the reincarnate's name?"

Onryō didn't answer, let alone acknowledge the fox demon. The only thing that kept coming across his mind was the image of Seraphina's new form. He remembered when he first caught a glance of her; how she looked so fragile and dainty in that simple illusion his captains conjured up. What sort of half crafted idea Seraphina had planned in her last moments was a foolish attempt. A human body such as that could never withstand the power a Great Elder and Spirit Queen once previously had. Both physically and emotionally.

"We won't kill Goryō," he answered. "Perhaps he could still serve as a puppet, but he is to be kept in the lowest area of the Dying Kingdom. He will be sent to-"

" _Don't say it!"_ Kitsune and Harionago simultaneously screamed, kneeling before him with their hands folded. "Please, don't even mention that horrid place's name!" they cried.

"Enough of this display!" he barked. "I will not mention its name, but you know where he is to be sent. As for the reincarnate," he paused for a moment, reflecting on his choice. "I want to see her."

Jorōgumo gasped. "You can't be serious. Chaos could be started prematurely if it became confrontational, and we still have to rebuild our bases and armies due to Goryō's leadership. It's too risky, King Onryō. She has a strong guard with four gems on her side, not to mention an alliance with the Great Elders and those filthy hybrids and beasts she cared for."

"I'm not going to _meet_ her," he clarified. "I want to see what she is capable of. She may not recognize her weaknesses and strengths like I can. Besides, if you all recall, when I rose up in my primitive form, raw energy surged through my body and scattered across the south. It's only a matter of time before it awakens demons and mischievous spirits that have been dormant. Now, as I said, I want to see her and her army of warriors."

* * *

"Look at this, guys!" Jay exclaimed as he ran into the living room, his new furī snugly held in his arms. "The collar I ordered for Blue finally came in. Look at it!" The Blue Ninja held up his pet for all to see the new blue leather collar around its neck, a gold tag that had _Blue_ engraved dangling from it.

"Blue…got style!" the furī purred as he wagged his tail.

"How adorable!" Maria awed.

"You know what would be adorable?" Cole asked. "If you had our new suits with you because that's the real reason we sent you to pick up the mail."

"I got them," Jay said as he set Blue down, before sitting himself."I left them downstairs near the exit. It'll make for a dramatic change in case anything happens in the city or near the temple."

The Ninja gathered on the ground as soon as they woke up, wasting no time getting to work. Zane was wise in suggesting to put up some protective charms, that they may have cheaply crafted themselves, to block off their connection with any of the demons. From then on to the early afternoon, they observed each scroll, each detail of the clock, each page of the book carefully, hoping to find something to give them any sort of answer. It was hard without Wu's wisdom and Misako's translation skills, but they were able to manage, little by little.

"Well, we still haven't seen activity from any of the demons or Onryō in a while," Nya reminded them. "Are we sure Onryō is awake and active? Maria woke up and she is connected to him, but is that really a sign that he's awake?"

Maria thought for a moment before an idea popped into her head. "There is one way we could find out," she replied while standing up. She cleared her throat as much as she could before breathing in deeply and shouting, " _I'm the hybrid daughter of Seraphina and the Spirit Princess! I never died! Also, Onryō's wife is a pile of ash!"_

The seven braced quickly braced themselves for any sudden attack or appearance of an enraged Onryō or Goryō. After a moment, hearing no suspicious sounds or seeing any puffs of smoke appear out of nowhere, they sat back up cautiously. "I guess the charms work," Kai suggested, "or maybe Onryō isn't awake."

"Either way, we still have to be careful," Lloyd said. "And as much I hate to say it, Maria needs to be heavily protected."

"What?" she asked in disbelief. "We're still doing the whole "protect the princess" thing? I've got power and have been training the hardest I can. I can take care of myself."

"But I don't want it to come to that," the young leader protested. "I want you to be as safe as possible with Onryō coming back into existence. You still have a long way to go in controlling your power, especially since you've gained more now that Onryō is freed. Plus we only have one working gem on our side."

Jay cleared his throat, bringing attention back to him. "Technically, we could have four working gems. Maria would just need to touch them like she did with mine and charge it up."

"That seems illogical, Jay," Zane disagreed. "While she was close to unlocking her power, I doubt she did little in unlocking it."

"I could try it," Maria shrugged, forming a small spirit orb in her hand. "I mean, we're still trying things out, so who wants to be the test subject?"

"Heck, I'll do it," Kai eagerly replied as he grabbed her hand. He placed it on his armlet and was immediately pushed back from the contact, skidding down the hallway until he made a stop with a distant _thud._ The remaining Ninja stared at each other in concern for their friend and in shock at what had happened. From his distant position, Kai called back to the group, "I'm good. It didn't work though."

As he stumbled dizzily back into the room and attempt to sit down, Cole offered a disappointed sigh. "We're never gonna learn anything new with just the seven of us. We know about the Knights, the Great Elders, the capability of Maria's powers. We're not going to make any progress without a translator like Misako or Cliona."

"Not happening," the Pink Ninja declared. "I don't feel comfortable just going up to any of the Great Elders and announcing I'm not dead. Goryō said they were really upset when they heard Seraphina and the Knights died, especially when they heard about me dying. It's just not the time. Especially not with Cliona."

"I'm with Maria," Nya spoke up. "Besides, Blue's a survivor from the attack that killed Seraphina and her army. Maybe we should be asking him."

"Brawwr?" The furī raised his head and trotted over to the group, happily wagging his tail. He panted excitedly as he sniffed the laid out scrolls before rolling on top of them.

Jay gently picked up his furry pet and held him up above the ground. "Ok, buddy, tell us more about the Knights of Life and what they were like. Tell us what it was like back then."

The furī didn't respond in fragment sentences like it normally did. Instead,his ears were flattened down in confusion, as he examined the scrolls once more. He settled on taking the most commonly seen scroll in his mouth; Seraphina and her chosen Knights in shadow, all behind the glass clock. Blue walked up to Maria and gently set the yellowed paper on her lap."Family," he said.

"I know, Blue," she said, giving him a light pet on his soft head. "But I don't know what else you're trying to say. I know my Seraphina is my mom, but we need to know more about the day you got separated from others."

Suddenly, Blue had backed up to Jay's side, whimpering in fear. He shook his head furiously before burying himself into the Blue Ninja's chest. "Secret," he whispered. "Safety…secret."

Before the Pink Ninja could continue, Cole held her back. "Don't overwhelm him. It's probably painful for him to look back on that day because of…well, whatever went down."

A look of guilt spread across her face as she lowered. "I'm sorry if I'm rushing into this. It's just that when I look at these scrolls, knowing what I didn't before, I see my family history. It's a little hard to look at them any other way."

"But that's kinda good," Lloyd said. "Maybe deep down, you have memories that'll help in learning more about Seraphina and our own past lives. Maybe we could even figure out a way to find the remaining gems."

"That's easier said than done," Maria replied with a half smile. "A lot of my memories probably wouldn't stick with me if this all happened when I was a baby. All I can remember is being cared for fairly well and Goryō," she tilted her chin up to reveal the tiny scar, "gave me this."

"So he wants to kill you. We know that," Jay deadpanned. "What did Jorōgumo even do with that maniac?"

"She took care of him the best way she could," Lloyd declared. "Whatever happens to him isn't our problem any more, it's the demon's problem now. I don't want to hear anymore about him, alright?"

 _ **BBBZZZ! BBBZZZ!**_

Lloyd's phone vibrated from his pocket, prompting him to quickly glance at the number and answer. "Hello? Oh, Commissioner, how are-" A look of confusion spread across his face as he covered his left ear with his free hand. "I can't hear you. What's with all the background noise?"

While the others listened to the conversation second handed, a look of concern mixed with fear spread across the young leader's face. His mouth went agape as he slightly became pale before quickly maintaining his composure again. He refused to show any more emotion as he quickly ended the call. "Ok, sir. I'll let my team know and inform them, just try your best to keep it controlled as possible. We'll be there shortly."

"Is everything alright?" Zane spoke up.

"Are the demons finally attacking?" Nya asked.

Lloyd shook his head. "Not exactly, but we do have to fight. The Commissioner received some calls about some strange noises from a building scheduled for demolition today from the crew. When he went to investigate, things got a little hectic. I'll explain more down there, right now we need to help."

In agreement, the Ninja quickly headed down the stairs towards the unopened package, waiting to be torn open. The tape was quickly stripped off, the cardboard flaps folded open to allow their eager hands to grab their new respective suits. With a shared look, they held their suits close to them before spinning rapidly and shouting, "Ninja-go!"

When they stopped, their former clothes were folded at their feet, leaving them to freely admire their outfits now on their bodies. "I gotta hand it to the people who make these suits for us, they're on point!" Kai exclaimed.

"I'll say," Cole agreed. "It's like every time we're off starting a new adventure, we get new suits with completely new designs. I really appreciate the people who put their backs into stuff like this."

"We'll send them a thank you letter later," Lloyd chuckled. "Now let's head out!"

One by one, they charged out the door of the temple, quickly summoning their dragons. Blue eagerly joined Jay, hopping on top of the Lightning Ninja's dragon with him. Maria did the same with Lloyd, as she still had trouble with her own dragon being summoned. Before the young Ninja lead the group, he whispered over to his sister, "Hey, I know you know the most about demons and all, but when I tell you to stay back, listen."

"What?" she whispered back.

"I just want you safe. Trust me on this, ok, bud?"

As she pulled down her hood, Maria nodded her head. "I'll do my best."

* * *

"Where are they?" the Commissioner grumbled to himself. Every minute those rainbow colored ninja weren't here was a minute more the city was at risk. _His_ precious city that he swore to protect unlike his predecessors who were instantly fired for failing the task. He had every reason to keep it safe, which is why he stood outside of the apartment complex in the scorching sun, his men creating a barricade to keep curious citizens away from the sight.

He didn't know what, but something was definitely in there, just as the demolition crew had complained. Something not human from the way it moaned inside, it's voice echoing off the old walls and out to the open air. To be honest, it was starting to creep him out a little.

Ok, a lot.

But he wasn't ready to admit it to the rest of the force. He _was_ the Commissioner after all; the face of the police force and one of the faces of peace for New Ninjago City, besides the pajama kids. Unlike _them_ who were born with magical powers, he earned his position through hard work and determination, and it rewarded him in the end. He was just as good as them, even that Psyche-

 _ **CRASH!**_

The Commissioner jumped back a little with a short yelp, but quickly brushed it off. With that noise sounding off, he made the decision of heading in and dealing with it himself. He took his taser in his hands, ready to fire as he slowly entered the building. His feet shuffled against the rough gravel and loosened cement that had fallen from the ceiling.

It had gotten darker as he had gotten deeper into the complex, fear growing in him. Even though his heart felt like it would explode out of his chest, he kept taking another step after another. The faint sparks of his taser guided him through the shadows, allowing him to see a foot or so in front of him. It wasn't much, but he could get by.

"Who goes there?" a faint voice asked with a bit of roughness. Definitely sounded like a guy, a foolish one to be here in a place like this.

"I could be asking you the same thing, pal," the Commissioner huffed, reaching to replace his taser with his flashlight. "The Police Department received calls about a strange beast terrorizing this place as soon as they started to tear this place down. I even called the Ninja to help take care of the situation, but it turns out it was just a waste. Seems to me it was just a prank by some idiot."

He flickered his flashlight on, shining back and forth until it landed on a small figure leaning against a crumbling pillar. "Alright, fun is over. Get out of here before I arrest you." The figure didn't move an inch at the threat the Commissioner sent. "Didn't you hear me?" he asked, getting infuriated at the lack of respect. "You're trespassing and interfering with a demolition ordered by the mayor. You're looking at few years of jail time!"

"I am not the one behind the strange noises you're people have feared; that is the work of a beast that has woken up due to my aura," the figure replied while oddly standing up straight. He stood as three heads taller than a regular person…definitely not a regular human. "So what is it exactly that you're going to do to me, Officer?" The figure snapped its face towards him, flashing bright yellow eyes in his direction.

"N-n-nothing," the Commissioner quivered, realizing the threat before him. He began to slowly back up "Just forget I said anything and we can just forget the whole thing."

Without warning, a huge red clawed hand grasped his entire body, pulling him towards the strange figure's masked face. "I think not," the figure hissed. "As cliche as it seems, you know too much. This was intended to be a silent observation. However," the figure leaned forward, gently lifting up its mask enough for it to reveal its grotesque mouth, "I sense a strong pain in you, one you've ignored for too long out of pride and regret."

"I don't know what're talking about!" The Commissioner thrashed around in the tight grasp of the figure, no…beast that had him. "You don't know me!"

"And you don't know me," the beast replied, "but perhaps I could show you a fragment of my power, my messenger."

* * *

The Ninja quickly landed near the demolition sight and had their dragons disappear from sight. As they walked up to the building guarded by police, they quickly reviewed the mission. "Ok, so what exactly are we dealing with?" Kai asked. "It's not an oni, is it?"

Lloyd shook his head. "No, the Commissioner said it hasn't been seen clearly, but the beast resembles a sort of ox. But I wonder how many demons fall under that category."

"Surprisingly, only one," Maria commented, "which means it's probably an ushi oni, uh, ox demon, I mean. It's strange since these creatures are normally found near bodies of water and will roam nearby coastal towns for humans if none come near their lairs. For it to be here in an urban area is very unusual for its behavior."

"Maybe it got really hungry," Cole shrugged. "But how could a demon as big as an ox just stroll into the city with out causing a panic until now?"

"It's not typically as big as an ox, per se."

"Ninja!" an officer called over to them, gaining their attention as they rushed over to them. "The Commissioner went inside the building while he was waiting for you guys. He's been in there for almost ten minutes."

"What's his deal?" Nya asked. "We told him we were coming."

 _ **CRACK! CRASH!**_

Debris fell from the building's upper levels, nearly crashing onto the people below. The police fell back as the Ninja gathered closer to the building's entrance, ready for battle. Lloyd quickly lead the group by blasting an energy beam at descending debris headed their way, reducing the risk of them getting smashed. "We need to stick together once that thing comes out, no matter what."

Deep within the complex came a terrible scraping noise that suddenly reached the lower level. Devious eyes flashed in the shadows directly at them as the scraping got louder. The loud smacking of a tongue against lips mixed with a deep enraged breath. A moan-like roar erupted from the building as the beast got closer.

The fur on Blue's back stood straight up as he barked at the approaching threat, his teeth snarling and sharp. Jay quickly aligned himself with his companion, ready to aid him in battle. "So, Pinky," he called over to the Spirit Ninja, "anything else we should know about this thing before it tries to kill us?"

"Just two," she replied, drawing her neko-te out. "One is that it has toxic breath, but with a small range of three feet all around. The second thing-"

The ushi oni leapt from the shadows and flew over them briefly, its shadow hovering over them. Seconds before it landed on top of the Ninja, they rolled back and braced themselves for the aftershock of it landing. The beast locked onto as many of the Ninja as it possibly could with its wild eyes before letting out a vicious roar, standing tall on all eight of its clawed legs.

"…its entire lower body past the head is like a spider's."

The ushi oni quickly released a thick smog of poisonous breath around its wide body, allowing it to be completely protected from the Ninja. It didn't move, but rather waited inside as it stared down its enemies. "Ok, so how do we kill this thing?" Cole asked.

"We can't lure it out easily of the city if it smells people, it knows better than that," Zane warned. "We have to fight it here without causing major damage to the city and people."

Maria nearly hopped up and down as an idea came into her mind. "Wait! Furī eat spiders as part of their diet, plus they can withstand toxic fumes!"

"And you're telling us this just now?!" Nya demanded.

"I'm sorry, it just came to mind after reading over a few things this morning."

Seeing an opportunity, Jay whistled at Blue to get his attention. "Ok, buddy," he pointed towards the smog cloud, "fetch the monster in there. Fetch him and bite hard!"

The furī replied with a short bark before charging into the cloud. No more than a few seconds passed before the ox demon emerged out of its cloud of protection, howling in pain. Blue rode atop its back, biting and tearing at its thick hide with a slight grin on his face. The beast fell to the ground, turning its head back to try and bite back at Blue.

"We got him!" Kai exclaimed as he and Cole quickly charged at the beast. They pinned down six of its legs with their strength, leaving the front two to claw at the ground in an attempt to break free. Zane quickly froze the front two legs, rendering them useless. As the beast quickly tried to create another cloud of poison, Nya shot a stream of water down its throat, making it choke on its watered down attack.

Lloyd walked up to the beast and clamped its snout shut by placing a foot on top. "This was easier than I thought," he scoffed. "I thought you would actually be dangerous, but you just went down easy after causing an uproar for no good reason." He turned back towards Maria and gestured for her to come closer. "It's safe, but I want you to check over it for anything we might've missed, considering you're more of an expert on things like these than the rest of us."

Maria obliged and quickly kneeled to its side, examining it for anything suspicious looking. Its stomach was flabby and didn't look like it expanded, so it hadn't eaten anyone, especially the Commissioner by the looks of things. The fur on its scruff was torn a little because of the spread of Blue's attack, revealing a little multiple wounds drying up. Other than that, the beast looked surprisingly new, like it had just been newly formed in existence. Even its eyes were a bit bloodshot from anger and rage, but they didn't look clouded or faded with age.

"This one just came to be," she concluded.

"Uh, what?"

"It was just born today," she clarified. "It didn't wandered in Ninjago City by chance, it was born _right_ in the building complex."

"How the heck is that possible?" Cole asked. From under him and Kai, the ushi oni began struggling and nearly broke. "Actually, I can wait for an answer. We gotta destroy this thing!"

"I'm on it!" Maria quickly charged up a spirit orb, ready to strike the demon just as she stopped. The ushi oni kept staring dead on into her eyes, making her feel a sort of chill. It wasn't mad or angry like it was before, but actually…it was scared.

It was born today for probably a short time and was disturbed by the loud noise of the construction crew getting to work. The first things it felt was pain by their own doing, so it attacked out of fear for the life it began to know. It defended itself with what little power it had control over and what it had known it could do. This was all an attempt to survive.

Maria lowered her arm and called off the orb. "I can't do this," she whimpered. "I can't kill it."

"What?!" the team exclaimed.

"It's not right!" she cried out. "I'm sorry, but I'm not a killer!"

"What're you talking about?" Kai shouted. "What about the nue? You destroyed it and saved us. And you ripped off Goryō's horn because you wanted to defeat him, right?"

"But something is different now! I-"

Suddenly the ushi oni broke free of the Ninja's grasp, even Blue's fierce bite. With full force it charged for Maria, mouth opened and ready to clamp down. She quickly rolled to the side out of its way and without thinking, fired a charged shot into its mouth. It swallowed the attack down instead of her, freezing in place to comprehend what was happening. A rumble came from its now filled gut, making its entire body shake fiercely and slowly turn to black.

As the black mass spread throughout its being, it took a final look at Maria, that same fear creeping into its eyes. In a flash of light, pink cracks spread across the demon's body as it let out a pained scream. As its cries died out, its body fell down in a cloud of dust as it hit the ground. The ushi oni's body became apart of the dust cloud, particles slowly drifting away as it faded from existence until it was no more.

Everyone stood still and quiet at what had just happened, until an officer cheered, "They did it!" His cheer led others to break the silence and cheer as well.

"The monster's gone!"

"We're safe again thanks to the Ninja!"

"The new Pink Ninja did it!"

The cheers grew louder as Maria just sat there completely still and emotionless. While the rest of her teammates muttered something as they entered the complex, Lloyd kneeled by her side and helped her up. "You doing ok there, bud? You got rid of the demon."

"I killed him," she whispered, her eyes wide.

"He would've harmed someone."

"He's like me. The ushi oni is similar to me; we're both creatures."

Lloyd shook his head as he looked ready to cry himself. "No. You're good. You _want_ to be good, don't you?"

Before she could cry, she held onto her brother and hugged him tightly. "Am I identifying myself too much with these creatures? I was fine before, but I never saw my powers do _that_ to anything we've fought before. How am I gonna deal with this for the rest of our mission? How am I gonna fight Onryō? How am I gonna move on?"

"Hey, you're fine," he assured her, rubbing circles on her back. "Just take it one step at a time, bud." Lloyd took a deep breath in before he pulled apart from the hug. "Look, there's something you should know about yourself, something I just want you to keep in mind. It's about your true potential and the steps you'll need to take to unlock it."

"True potential?"

"Basically, it's the highest point for an Elemental Master to reach in their powers," he tried to explain. "They try to push past emotional barriers that hold them back from reaching this point. Before he left, Sensei Wu told me what your problem is."

"Problem?" Maria gasped.

"N-no! I didn't mean that there's anything wrong with you!" Lloyd stammered. "I mean…well, each of us had things that held us back. Kai didn't realize his true destiny, Jay was scared to be himself, Zane didn't know who he was, Cole was under pressure from his father, Nya gave up easily, and then there's me and you. I was a little like you; I didn't eagerly accept my destiny to fight my father and possibly kill him. You're having so much put on you and you're finding out all these things, but Wu knew what really held you back.

"Maria," the Green Ninja put his hands on her shoulders, "you put false hope in yourself, and I understand what Sensei was trying to tell me back then when he said this was dangerous for you. You know fully well what you can and can't do, but you ignore the risks, you kid yourself because you want to make others happy. You'll figure out how to overcome it, but it's dangerous, especially since you're kinda the Embodiment of Hope, I guess."

The Spirit Ninja said nothing as she pulled back from his grasp and looked fearful from what she heard. "I fool myself?" she mumbled to herself. "Will this really be the end of me? Why would you tell me something like this now?"

"Because you're obviously rethinking somethings, and I want to be sure," Lloyd stopped for a moment. "I just wanna be sure…do you want to be here, fighting like this?"

"Of course!" she exclaimed. "I made that point over again and again, Lloyd! It's hard to fight, but I still want this. I want to protect Ninjago now that Onryō is on the loose. This is the path I choose, not as a Spirit Princess, but as a Pink Ninja."

"Hey, you two!" Nya's voice pulled them back to reality as they saw the others walking towards them. Each of them carefully supported a part of the Commissioner's body as he laid limp in their grasp. "We've got a situation with the Commissioner, he's out cold," she said as they laid his body gently on the ground before them.

His face was pale and his eyes were sunken in, dark circles surrounding him. Tear stains were on his tousled shirt, mixed in with smudged dirt and dust. The Commissioner gently shook as he muttered repeatedly, "I'm sorry."

"Ok, but why aren't we taking him to an actual doctor?" Lloyd asked. "He needs help."

Zane cleared his throat. "I can answer that. I did a quick scan on him when he proved to be unresponsive and found a large chemical imbalance in his brain. Specifically, in his levels of norepinephrine and serotonin."

"Just to translate," Kai cut in, "he's overly depressed."

"Depressed?" Maria asked. "I'm confused, he's like this because he's severely depressed?"

"I'm so sorry!" the Commissioner suddenly wailed. His arms flung up as though he tried to grab ahold of something. "Please, no more! Just stop, Psyche!"

Cole gently shushed him, "It's ok, big guy, you're good."

"Did you at least call an ambulance?" asked Maria. "And how does he know my last name?"

"Yes, and it's probably because you're a Ninja," Kai quickly answered. "The Commissioner never really liked us that much, so he keeps tabs on us from time to time. But there's something else you need to see, something kinda big." The Red Ninja pulled back the shirt collar from the Commissioner's neck, revealing a small black mark.

"He's wounded," Lloyd said.

Jay shook his head. "Look closer, you'll recognize it."

The two young Ninja leaned in and gasped. The mark was deeply made with a sort of black paint, but almost stronger. The shape was a three spiral symbol they had seen numerous times on scrolls, the Great Elder Cliona, and Maria's own suit. The only major difference was the center of the symbol. At the very center was a triangle.

"The demon symbol was painted on," Cole confirmed. "We know the attack with the ox demon wasn't connected to this, but there was definitely someone else here. And it's not Goryō."

"Onryō," Maria shuddered. "Oh, he might've heard me. He probably knows the truth while I was talking to Lloyd. Oh, geez, if he's here now…"

"He's not," Jay waved off, "relax, Pinky. Blue took a good sniff around, he can't smell Onryō anywhere. We're all safe."

* * *

"How curious," Onryō mused. "This reincarnation is just as bad as Seraphina was, and all too obvious in weakness." He watched atop from a nearby building, the humans below him nothing more than insects compared to where he stood. If they were completely unaware of his presence from a small distance, than this would be too easy. How delicious.

"You're never going to learn, not like this, Seraphina." His gaze shifted on the pink and green blots that were Seraphina and Oliver's reincarnations, seemingly comforting each other. "You're setting yourself up for defeat, allowing yourself to be close to humans, and this boy. Emotions will tear you apart like they did in the past, and that boy will be your downfall.

"A spirit such as you are can never truly hold emotion in your heart, but as a human, you fall closer to the impure desires each is born with. You draw closer to temptation and me." Onryō snapped his fingers, allowing a dark portal to form under his feet. As he slipped away, he took a final glance at the reincarnate, a smile forming on his face.

"The more you grow to love, the more pain you'll cause, Maria."

* * *

 ** _"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is the fear of the unknown."_ H. P. Lovecraft.**

 **Next time on Ninjago: Legend Undone...**

 **Survivor**


	5. 5: Survivor

**Disclaimer: If I've said it once, then I've said it 51 times- I don't own Ninjago, only OC's and elements not recognizable from the show. Thank you.**

 **Sup, guys! I know it's been a bit, but I'm back! So that holiday special wasn't going to work because of timing and scheduling and life being a hard yet rewarding thing, but I've fixed it. I'm trying harder for you guys but mainly myself to stick to telling the stories I have yet to tell and not fall back onto a 2,000-year hiatus. Also, I saw season 11, it was awesome as always, but I had to change the title, but that's what I get for the hiatus. But now it's time to kick it into high gear and get going! Also, it's better if I stick to a Wednesday/Friday schedule where I alternate the posting days. It's just better for my mental health.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Survivor**

The mop water spilled over as the janitor accidentally bumped into the security guards while he rounded the corner of the hall. The strong smell of disinfectant now dripped off their shoes as they hissed at what had happened. "Thanks a lot, pal!"

"My apologies, fellas," the janitor humbly said. "Mr. Borg wants the place spic and span as usual before my shift's over. Just gotta finish the bathrooms on this level and I'll be outta your hair." The plastic wheels on his bucket and bin squeaked as he maneuvered around the guards before heading further down the hall.

"Careful with the men's room, I had an extra helping of horned wasp eggs from Chen's for lunch," one of the guards called from down the hall, sending them both into a fit of laughter. "Extra spicy! Try not to die in there!"

The janitor paid no attention to their cackling but was grateful he had a new bottle of toilet cleanser on hand. It was a short walk before he reached the restrooms, the men's room giving off a more potent foul smell. He sighed as he gently pushed his bucket and bin into the men's room, one wheel unfortunately getting stuck and unstuck just like that, water splashing over the rim and onto the floor. Calmly taking the mop from the bucket, he dipped it into the water, wringed it twice, and began wiping the floor from the far end of the room. The mid-afternoon light peeked through the window as he made his way across the room.

He allowed himself to whistle a cheery tune despite the fatigue he felt coming after a hard day's work. It became a little dance to him, despite his aching muscles, as he walked over to grab the cleanser and air freshener. To his own little beat, he dramatically opened the last stall and applied the cleanser under the rim of the bowl, with a puffy cloud of ocean breeze filling the tiny stall. The janitor left the stall door open to air out the first of four stalls before moving to the next one.

 _ **PLOP!**_

The janitor stopped from entering the second stall as he glanced over his shoulder at the sound. A bag of garbage he collected earlier had ripped and fallen to the ground on his cleaned floor. With a groan and shake of his head, he pulled out his broom and dustpan to collect whatever he could from the ground. He swept as much garbage as he could and placed it, along with the ripped bag, into the bin. Before grabbing the mop, he stretched upward, his back giving off a satisfying loud crack. "I gotta find a new job," he muttered while preparing to dip and wring the drying mop. "At least give me a promotion after all the hard work I put into this one."

"…find," a trembling voice whispered.

"Yeah, I should just find another…" The janitor trailed off and stood up straight upon realizing there was someone else. "Someone here?" he slowly asked. "I'm cleaning this place up now, so I'd appreciate it if you could leave and wait until I'm done. Unless you can't for obvious reasons."

Soft sniffling broke the silence and quickly grew to uncontrollable sobbing. The voice behind it sound very young and like a girl, but it could still possibly be a young boy. Either way, it was concerning to the janitor as he softened his demeanor. "It's ok, it's ok," he assured while quickly checking the stall closest to the entrance. "Empty," he clicked his tongue as he moved to the neighboring stall, turning up empty again.

"…find me," the voice softly whispered through its fit of sobs.

"I'm coming, ok?"

The janitor was becoming worried at the situation as he moved to check the third stall. It was locked when he tried pushing the door, the sobbing easing back to a sniffling. Had someone left their kid here on accident? Maybe one of the employees brought in their kid or sibling's kid in to show around the place as a special tour. It wasn't that uncommon for employees to show off their place of work in the famed Borg Tower. But to leave them unattended like this? That was scary.

He knocked three times on the stall door, the crying coming to a complete stop. "Are you sick? Did your mommy or daddy leave without you?" he questioned. The janitor peeked under the gap of the stall door, two little feet in red ballet slippers swinging back and forth into view. "Are you embarrassed you came into the men's room by accident? It's not that bad, missy," he sympathized while reaching in his back pocket for his screwdriver.

"Stuff like this happens all the time to everyone, happened to me when I was younger." He grabbed ahold of his tool and placed the head into the stall's outer lock, turning it until it clicked. "Tell you what, missy, I'll keep this a secret if it makes you feel better. Plus, someone had brought in some doughnuts to share in the staff kitchen. I can take you there and you can have one while we look for your folks. How's that sound?"

Without pushing the door, it opened slowly from inside revealing a little head peeking out. A dainty hand reached out and gently tugged the janitor's uniform. He let out a chuckle as he rested his hand over hers. "I'll get you out of here, missy. Hey, you can even check out the storage closet with me. I have a bunch of bright, pretty paints in there I was gonna use to repaint some-"

The hand quickly reached up to his neck, cutting off his air as his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. He felt light all over his body as a cold fluid suddenly came rushing down his throat, now gurgling liquids instead of breathing air. His arms and legs flailed wildly until he was flung backwards into his supplies. His eyelids flutter shut as he heard small footsteps approach him as he went completely limp. The mop bucket fell over on its side from his weight and water spilled onto the floor.

* * *

"This is crazy. The world is ending if this is happening," Jay gasped as he nearly dropped the plate on the table. "We've really reached the point of no return."

"Will you stop being a drama queen?" Cole groaned. "I just said I don't want to eat cake anymore."

"Could you both relax a bit?" Nya shushed them. "You two are so loud."

After the incident at the construction site, everyone agreed a little lunch could help their minds and growling stomachs in deciding their next move. The only place that was close and cheap enough was Mr. Chen's Noodle House. Plus, Skylor personally greeted them at the door and, despite the "No Dogs Allowed" policy, didn't mind Blue coming in seeing how he wasn't _exactly_ a dog. Along with that, the earlier ruckus in the city drew attention from the people, so naturally they were curious and wanted to see what had happened, leaving the restaurant practically empty for the seven of them.

They had resumed their plans of trying to figure out what the next step would be, but in all honesty, it was a little difficult with all the loose ends they had now. Which led them to their current conversation that they could hold some focus on- Cole's refusal to eat cake.

"I don't get it, Cole. It's your thing to like cake so much," Kai said while slurping up a helping of noodles. "You're strong but sensitive and enjoy cake. It's a fact."

Cole shrugged his shoulders and pushed the plate away. "Well, Lloyd may be the leader but I'm the strong backbone. I can't be distracted by stuff like this if I want to accomplish the goals we set for this team. I'm sorry, but it's not a big deal."

Before he could possibly change his mind, Blue leapt from Jay's lap and held the plate above his head with his paws, the pastry sliding off and into his mouth. He chomped and licked his lips noisily while the others shared a look. "I give him a week," Jay bet.

"Hmm, maybe after we defeat Onryō and celebrate," Maria guessed.

"My money's on after we escape a life or death situation," Lloyd claimed. "And seeing how 'another day in Ninjago' can turn into something more, that's bound to happen any moment now."

"Can we please get back to why monsters are popping up around the city and far from where they'd normally be found?"

"It was only one demon," Zane corrected. "But I've ran through possibilities on how the ushi oni appeared there. The most logical one is that the skeletal remains were left there many years back in a more primitive Ninjago. Unless I'm mistaken," he glanced towards the Pink Ninja for confirmation.

"No, you're on the right track. It's not uncommon to hear stories of warriors or brave common folk fighting off demons and taking any remains as trophies of their actions. This actually leads me to a theory of my own." Maria laid her book out on the table with the section on _Urban Legend Spirits._ "When Onryō was released, I felt this powerful presence rush all around me and through me. What exactly do you think was the result of that presence?"

The Ninja thought for a moment before Nya cut in. "Well, Onryō came back into the world and you got a bit stronger because of the curse that connects you two. We already knew that, but I don't see what it has to do with this chapter in the book."

Maria lowered her head as she reluctantly flipped through the pages. "It's kinda scary to say this, but when I was trying to suppress my powers, I remember Jorōgumo saying something the sky turning dark and oceans parting for Onryō. I should've realized what she was referring to," she scolded herself as she ended on two pages with the first one titled _Ōmagatoki_. "I think this is what happens after Onryō is released."

The picture provided on the pages was of a simple village no different than what could be seen in the countryside. Cast over it was a fog, spreading its reach over as the dark, empty sky offered no light. "So," Cole popped a puffy pot sticker in his mouth, "this ōmagatoki is a fog demon. That's not so bad."

"It's not a demon, it's a phenomenon that happens almost worldwide. It means 'the hour of meeting evil spirits.' In old legends, it was believed the world of humans and the world of spirits and demons were separate until this hour. When this happens something in the air stinks of blood, cold winds blow, but mainly- "

"It turns dark," Lloyd finished. He slid the book towards him and glanced over it. "Obviously, this hasn't happened before until today, but that was in the daytime." He groaned and slumped back in his seat. "I know where this is headed."

"Maria, the demons return to where they came from once ōmagatoki is over. Is that not correct?" Zane asked. She replied with a small nod and averted her eyes. "Then any spirits or demons with evil intentions could rise from their slumber. They would be rejuvenated by Onryō's dark aura and prowl about this world, confused and unwilling to sleep again."

" _BRRAWWRRR!"_ Blue loudly burped making them all jump in their seats. He let out a yawn and smacked his furry lips before settling down.

Kai shot Jay a look as he shook his head. "You need to train that thing better. Just because he's staying with us doesn't mean he can do whatever."

Jay gasped as he held the furī close to him, his head resting over his shoulder. "Hey, Blue went through some things, he's probably even traumatized by it. That's why we gotta be patient with him. Right, Blue?" The Blue Ninja patted his companion on the back as a deep guttural burp escaped the creature's mouth, disgust spreading on Jay's face.

Nya cleared her throat. "Did he just- "

"Don't say it."

A chuckle cut through as Skylor approached the table with a bill in her hand. "As long as that little guy doesn't ruin the upholstery, your discount won't be revoked." As she set the slip of paper on the table her eyes were drawn to the opened book. "So, how's the next adventure coming along? Something big?"

Nya turned in her chair to better face their ally. "Skylor, this place is open late sometimes, right? Maybe you noticed something weird happening a few nights ago, something in the air or outside."

The Elemental Master of Amber thought carefully as she gathered their empty plates. "Now that you mention it, about four nights ago, the sky went dark even though it was supposed to be a full moon. I thought because it was a bit cloudy, I just couldn't see it, but I couldn't for the longest time," she explained. "Is this connected to the attack that happened earlier today?"

"No, that was something completely different," Lloyd said. The seven of them knew it was a complete lie. The evidence was little but clear that Onryō's reemergence had done more damage to their world than they thought. The ushi oni came back not long after the Second Strike which meant more creatures that were in a deeper slumber than anything they've encountered before would appear soon. Maybe even closer to their homes and other places full of innocent people. But they couldn't tell Skylor that.

It wasn't that they didn't trust her with the finer details, it was more of a safety procedure for Maria. The less who knew about her background would be safer for her and everyone in case Onryō's remaining captains had caught wind of the truth. If that had happened, they wouldn't hesitate in trying to kill her or even release Goryō to help them if they were that serious. Despite wanting to tell their allies that could greatly help them, they'd have to lie through their teeth until it was all over.

Skylor shrugged her shoulders and turned to put the dishes away, but her eyes flickered up in confusion. She rushed to set the dishes on the counter and quickly pulled out a remote for the overhead tv, raising the volume up from mute. Her actions didn't go unnoticed by the Ninja as they looked up to the screen displaying the Borg Tower from above as cops surrounded the building. A reporter's voice came in mid-sentence as the front of the building came into camera view.

"… _all happening just 10 minutes ago. We're getting more details on the several people trapped above on the upper levels from the internal flooding, one of which includes inventor Cyrus Borg himself!"_

The Ninja quickly stood up and rushed out from their seats, knowing what had to be done. Zane, however, stayed back as he stared at the bill. "Are you forgetting something?" he asked the others as they stopped halfway out the door.

"You pay it," Cole said. "Just hurry up."

"I will," the nindroid assured as he pulled out his wallet and dumped out a pile of coins. "Let me count out the exact amount and then- "

"Leave it all!" Kai shouted. Zane did as he was asked and joined them as they headed out. "Keep the change, Skylor!" the Red Ninja yelled before they were completely out of her earshot as she shook her head.

"They could've just put it on their tab."

* * *

Though a crowd had amassed around the building, the bystanders quickly cleared a path for the Ninja as they understood the seriousness of the situation. They joined the officers at the entrance where they stood over a cheap plastic table and a map of the building's interior. "Ninja, thank goodness you made it!" an officer exclaimed, drawing attention from the others.

"What do we know about the people trapped inside?" Zane asked.

"There's four of them, including Mr. Borg, all trapped somewhere past the 100th floor," the officer explained. "The other three are security guards and a janitor that were supposed to be done with their shifts for the day. The remaining employees and visitors said water came flooding from the bathrooms, so we escorted as many as we could before shutting the doors tightly as we could. This is just…well, madness! This morning it was the construction site and now this happens."

Nya quickly stopped him from going any further. "This isn't connected to the earlier attack. Obviously, this is a freak accident from the water pipes bursting simultaneously and causing flooding."

Maria cleared her throat and gestured to the Ninja to talk privately. They shuffled away and huddled close together. "I know it sounds weird, but this is definitely the work of a demon." The others chuckled but stopped when they saw her face and how serious she was. "Why do you think I take my neko-te with me to the bathroom?"

"I personally thought it worked better for you than a plunger," Cole admitted.

Heat rose to Maria's cheeks as she hissed, "Moving on! There are actually a few demons that target their victims through bathrooms. Plus, the officer said a janitor was trapped up there, he's the most likely candidate to encounter the demon."

"Ok, so how do we defeat a toilet demon?" Lloyd asked then took a moment to recollect himself. "I never thought I'd have to say that."

"I don't know because I don't know which one it is; the description of the flooding attack is too vague to know which it is. What I do know is we can't encounter it alone, it takes two to outsmart it, whichever it may be."

"Fetch! Fetch!" Blue chirped as he jumped up and down in the middle of the circle. He tackled down Jay and licked his face, coating him in saliva. "Fetch!"

"Blue, bad boy!" Jay scolded the furī as he scrambled to get up. "We were having a meeting on how to go in the building to save the people." The furī cocked his head in a confused manner as Jay rolled his eyes. "Ok, don't give me that. I know you can understand me so listen careful- "

" _FETCH!"_ Blue sprinted past the circle the Ninja formed, under the table and through the legs of the police as he skidded to a stop at the tower's door. He sat on his back paws as he waddled up to the glass doors and reached forward to pull them open.

"Blue, stop it!"

The Ninja rushed over, shouting out commands to the furī to cease his actions. Blue only glanced over and offered a sad look as he continued to grasp the door handle. "Blue…good boy," he murmured softly.

"Yes, you are a good boy!" Jay exclaimed. He quickly glanced over his shoulder and gave the other Ninja a look to back him up. They quickly caught on and joined in shouting out "good boy" and "good Blue" to coax him over from the door. Even a few of the officers began calling to him, despite being very confused at the situation. Eventually Jay slowly began moving towards Blue making the furī perk up and wag its bushy tail.

"Blue, good!" Blue happily barked before backing up from the doors and run headfirst into them. The glass cracked from the impact enough to create a small hole for the furī to force himself through. The Ninja screamed and quickly sprinted after him as he made onto the other side of the doors. As they reached the doors, Blue had already begun swimming around in the water that flooded the building's interior and sniffed around before swimming upwards to a staircase.

"What is that mutant fox doing?!" an officer shouted. "He could've killed us all!"

"Technically he's not fox," Maria corrected him. "He's not really a mutant either…kind of."

"I think we're missing the big picture here," Nya cut in. "The water pressure should've broken the glass if the doors were damaged and we'd all be drowning in a flood by now. But apparently, we're still standing here perfectly safe and the water is staying inside the building. Why?"

Everyone paused and took a closer look at the door's newly made hole where Blue made his impact. True to Nya's realization, the water on the other side oddly stayed perfectly still and calm. Lloyd carefully knelt and poked the water through the hole sending only a few ripples through the stilled liquid. Taking it one step further, he got up and grasped the door handles and slowly opened the doors. "It's not flooding out," he exclaimed, the wall of water before them remaining intact before them. "I guess it's safe to say we could swim our way up."

"No way," Cole disagreed. "One, that's all toilet water. Two, the people are all the way up past the hundredth floor. Why don't we just use our dragons?"

"I agree with Cole," Zane said. "Just because it is calm now does not mean it could spill out once we have entered the building. I think we should- "

 _ **SPLOOSH!**_

From the water came tentacle that grabbed ahold of Nya around her head, nearly drowning her on contact. It quickly pulled her in and sent her upwards in sudden current that she couldn't escape from. By the time they had processed what happened, Jay and Kai screamed her name before diving in themselves. They managed to swim into the current and get pulled into its powerful force before being flung into a pillar blocking their path. They lost contact with the current and were left stranded on an upper level, but far from Nya.

* * *

"What just happened?!" Maria panicked. "Do we join them or what?"

"No, I was wrong about going in there," Lloyd said. "It was a stupid idea; we'd never be able to make in one breath." He thought for a moment before an idea came into his head and turned to the officers. "Keep everyone back in case the water shows signs of collapsing. We're heading up."

They quickly summoned their dragons, with Maria joining Lloyd, and quickly flew upwards. The compressed water glistened behind the buildings windows with miscellaneous objects floating aimlessly around. The Ninja kept their eyes glued for any signs of movement until they settled on hovering close after passing what felt like the 50th floor. "Does anyone see them?" Cole said over the flapping of the dragons' wings.

"I'm doing a scan right now," Zane replied as he focused closely. He kept an intense gaze until he moved forward and dismissed his dragon as he landed on a ledge nearby. He was quickly joined by the others as he began cutting a clean hole in the glass pane with his shurikens. "I'm detecting movement in this area. I think they made it up to here before losing Nya."

"Think it'll stay still?" Lloyd asked.

"I honestly don't know, but it there's a chance it won't, then we have to make that choice in order to save- "

" _Brawwrrr!"_ Water splashed onto the Ninja as Blue popped out from the new hole, panting happily to see them. "Fetched!"

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Cole groaned. "How are you still alive?"

Zane shrugged, "Well, he is part otter."

"Fetched!" Blue swam back in and down out of sight for a moment until he came back up, pulling the sleeves of Jay and Kai upwards with him. The Ninja quickly pulled them through as they coughed up water and gasped for air.

"We lost Nya," Kai sputtered out. "We were on her and then we lost her."

"We'll find her," Lloyd calmed them. He glanced upwards at the remaining floors they had yet to examine in search of the trapped people and Nya. "What kind of demon is this anyways?" he thought aloud.

"To be honest," Maria mumbled, "I'm not sure anymore."

* * *

Nya nearly puked as she quickly coughed up whatever water she had swallowed and shivered with disgust once she remembered where it came from exactly. Her throat felt rough and scratched up as she steadied her breathing, calmly glancing around at the empty floor that she was stranded one. It seemed untouched and darkened as though everyone had left work at the end of a normal day; there wasn't a sign of any attack or flooding in sight. Any inventions were powered down and, other than the puddle around her, it was spotless and futuristic looking as always.

It was completely normal.

" _Pssstt! This way,"_ a voice hissed from around the corner. Nya cautiously pulled out her sword as she slowly made her way to the source. Before she made the turn herself, Cyrus Borg slowly rolled out in his wheelchair and waved her over.

"Mr. Borg, you're ok!" she happily exclaimed as she rushed over. "The others and I came as soon we heard the news. It's such a relief to see you safe and- "

" _Shhhh! She might hear you!"_ As Nya reached the inventor, she could see the fear and panic on his face at being found by the demon that caused this. Along with him hiding were the two security guards and a janitor that seemed to have gotten the short end of the stick as he laid tiredly on the floor, his eyes bloodshot with exhaustion. "When the place began flooding, the water trapped us on this level. We couldn't go down or up without the water suddenly coming in our path."

"It's been a nightmare," one of the guards said in a hushed tone, "a complete nightmare that I just want to wake up from. We couldn't escape and we've barely managed to hide from the monster causing this mess. Its here with us on this level, hiding away until she explodes. The little devil would scream her lungs out if we got close to her."

"Wait, it's a female?" Nya asked. "How do you know that if you've been hiding far from her?"

The janitor weakly raised his hand as his eyes widened. "I saw the little girl when I was cleaning the bathroom stalls on this floor. I thought it was a lost kid and tried to help." He closed his eyes and began softly breaking down. "I can't get that face out of my mind. That wretched face is there whenever I blink. She's there!"

The men quickly shushed him as another voice echoed down a nearby hallway. It began as soft sobs before erupting into shrill screams that sent goosebumps across their skin. "Find me! Find me!" it pleaded sadly.

"Be careful," the janitor warned. "She's in the third stall in the men's room. Please, stop her."

Nya quickly readjusted her hood and sprinted down the hall with the cries ringing in her ears. As she stopped in front of the men's restroom so did the crying. She pushed the door opened slowly, sticking her sword in front first until she entered in herself. Under the third stall's door where the demon was said to be shone a blue light as she made her way in front of it. With her own orb of water in her free hand Nya tightened the grip on her sword as she prepared to kick the door open and take the demon by force.

'It's now or never,' she thought to herself. 'On the count of three, I'll kick it in.'

"No, don't," a voice stopped her. It didn't scare her, but it did startle her a bit. It was male and reminded her of Jay with the comfort she found in the tone. When Nya turned her head, the figure was far from Jay or even being alive. He was see-through like a ghost and most of his body was blue blur that couldn't be made out, but she could see his face.

He had long reddish-brown hair that nearly covered his left eye as his right eye had a scar above, specifically in the eyebrow. His face had a similar goofy grin that made Nya instantly think of Jay when he flashed it at her. "Knock three times," he instructed her, "and ask 'Hanako, are you in there?' Poor thing came a long way so just be gentle and you can save her, Iyasu."

When Nya blinked for a second, he was gone in the next. Shaking herself out of the trance, she took his advice by retracting her sword and dispersing the water. Nya clenched her fist and gently knocked three times exactly on the door before asking, "Hanako, are you in there?"

"…yes," the voice, Hanako, timidly replied.

"I came to find you and I'm here now. Can you open the door?"

 _ **CREEAAKKK!**_

The door slowly opened and revealed the one behind all of this. Hanako appeared nothing more than a little girl at least six years old. She had a white button up shirt with a red skirt and matching ballet flats. Her face was like a doll's with big sad eyes and a faint blush in her soft cheeks. Messy raven black hair framed her delicate face as she glanced up at Nya. "Mommy?"

Nya knelt to meet her eyes and shook her head. "I'm not your mom," she replied as something clicked in her mind. "Did you bring me here because you thought I was your mommy?"

Hanako gently nodded yes as she wiped her runny nose. "I saw you through the water, but it was blurry. But I really wanted to see her because she told me hide a while ago until it was ok. But it wasn't ok because that man came in and found me, not mommy," she whimpered, fresh tears threatening to spill out.

Nya quickly shushed her before she broke out into another crying fit until she noticed the same blue light under Hanako's shirt. "What's that, sweetie?"

Hanako stopped her crying and reached under her top, shyly pulling out a broken light blue gem. It glowed faintly and faded to grey from where the other end had broken off. "I found it when I woke up. It's my good luck charm because it made me feel a little bit stronger."

Even with its worn-down appearance, Nya knew for certain that it was one of the gems. It made sense with the guy she saw and the effect it had on Hanako. Taking it from her might upset her further while she was still confused about the situation and cause another disaster. Still, it had given her more power even with only half of it in Hanako's possession, unless this little girl already possessed that much power naturally.

She was on her own with no back up close by and given strict instructions to be gentle with the girl not to stop her, but to _save_ her. Whatever this girl had gone through must've been extremely damaging on her. Not once did Hanako seemed phased at what she had done to the building. If the idea of having powers didn't surprise her, then she must not have realized she had, obviously at some point in her life, died.

"Hanako, my name is Nya and I'm a lot like you." Nya sat down, Hanako mimicking her actions. "I can control water but not as good as you."

Hanako's eyes widened with wonder. "Really? You can do stuff with water like me? Really, really?"

"I can and I want to help you. First, you have to get rid of the water and put it back where it came from carefully. Then we can go see my friends and help you more. Can you do that?"

For the first time since Hanako revealed herself she smiled and nodded happily. "Ok, Ms. Nya!" The little girl barely moved a muscle as the sound of rushing water came from all around, with streams moving rapidly from any little crevice in the ceiling or on the ground. It rushed past them and into the toilets, not single drop spilling as it made its way back down the pipes and back up the toilet bowls until each was filled with the right amount. "I'm done now," Hanako yawned, her eyes drooping as she wobbled forward.

Nya quickly caught her and held her tightly in her arms as she left the restroom. Hanako snuggled herself closer for warmth as Nya heard a familiar bark approach her. Blue came skidding down the hall and nearly ran into her legs as he tried to stop. He stood up on his back legs and placed a paw on Hanako's back, barking over his shoulder, "Fetched!"

"Found her!" Kai's voice shouted over the frantic footsteps of the group as they hurried down the hall. They crowded her and rambled off all at once what had happened. "We thought we lost you when we got stranded! The water was just rushing-"

"- this huge force just pulled all the water away- "

"Mr. Borg is ok!"

"I tried kicking in the window when we reached the floor, but Zane said- "

"Fetched! Fetched!"

"I'm just happy you're safe," Jay sighed. His face twisted once he noticed Hanako still miraculously sleeping in Nya's arms after all the commotion. He pointed at her having everyone notice now. "Where'd you get the kid?"

Nya smoothed the girl's hair back as she stirred in her sleep. "Her name is Hanako, she's the one that caused the building to flood. But she didn't mean to."

Maria stepped forward to get a closer look at the girl. "Her name is _Hanako?_ Any chance you found her in the bathroom?" When Nya gave a quick nod, Maria sucked her breath through her teeth. "Oooh, this is bad."

"How? She's just a kid, we can't really blame her for this."

"Not what I meant," the Pink Ninja explained. She turned back to the group with a solemn look on her face. "Hanako is the name of girl that died in the bathroom after being caught in a war."

"Strange," Zane mused. "I didn't think the Serpentine War had that much of an effect that it reached here all those years ago."

"What? No, that's not what I'm referring to." Maria rested a hand on Hanako's back. "There was another after Dominance that we hardly heard about. The second war that happened once the Knights of Life were established. This girl has been dead for thousands of years, but she doesn't know that. She's too young to really know."

Jay offered a sad smile before resting a hand the girl's little head. "She's strong to have made it all this way." He bent down slightly and whispered, "Hello, Hanako."

* * *

" _ **They say that abandonment is a wound that never heals. I say only that an abandoned child never forgets."**_ **Mario Balotelli**

 **Next time on Ninjago: Legend Undone…**

 **To The North**


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